JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
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TH E JU G G ERNAU T M E TH O D 2 .0
S TR E NGTH, S P EED A N D P OWER FO R EV ERY ATH LET E
by
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
CHAD WESLEY SMITH
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TABL E OF C O N T E N T S
A BOUT TH E AUTHOR
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W HAT IS T HE J UGGE R NAUT ME T H O D
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JUGGERNAUT TR AI NI NG P HI L OS O P H Y
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THE PROGR AM
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WARMUPS
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INVERTED J UGGE R NAUT ME THO D
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CONSOLIDATI ON OF S TR E S S OR S
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UNDULATI NG P E R I ODI ZATI ON M O D EL
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TJM AND 9 DAY WOR K WE EK
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SETTING UP YOUR TR AI NI NG P L A N
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A SSISTA NCE WOR K
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W EIGHTED DI P S AND CHI NUP S
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INCORPORATI NG S P EED AND P OWER WO R K
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INCORPORATI NG OLYMP I C L I FTIN G
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CONDITIONI NG
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CONDITIONI NG FOR FOOTBAL L
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PEA KING F OR A P OWE R LI FTI NG MEET
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TJM AND S TR ONGMAN
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ALTERNATIVE EXERCISES TO THE B I G 4
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JUGGERNAUT NUTR I TI ON
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JUGGERNAUT COOKB OOK
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INTERVIEW WI TH NF L L I NEMAN A LEX PA R SO N S
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With an accessible approach, rooted in proven performance enhancement strategies,
Chad's Juggernaut Method 2.0 is a truly complete training program. Not often will you
find a product that covers all the training demands an athlete needs to excel at his or her
given sport, and organizes them in a logical and productive fashion. Best of all, Chad
has made the program adaptable to athletes of any sport, at any level. If you want to
take your training, or your team's training to the next level I highly recommend you check
this out!
GREG ROBINS
STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING COACH
CRESSEY PERFORMANCE | WWW.GREGTRAINER.COM
I wanted to say thank you and to share with you my success under your Juggernaut
program. By utilizing your program I have hit a lifetime PR in my overhead axle press at
245 lbs. I also hit new lifetime PR's in my deadlift and my squat. Having competed in
Strongwoman competitions for many years using a strength program I thought was the
best, I was skeptical at first. However I am now a believer! Go Juggernaut or go home!
KRISTIN RHODES
4 TIME AMERICA'S STRONGEST WOMAN STRONGWOMAN NATIONAL CHAMPION
When the original Juggernaut Method book came out I picked it up right away because I
am always looking to explore and experiment with new methods in training. As the owner
of a sports performance facility for high school and college athletes I get paid to produce
results and improvements in strength and power. We have used the Juggernaut Method
for the past couple years since the book came out. To say the results have been
impressive would be an understatement. 75 – 100 pound increases on squats, 30 – 50
pound increases on bench press were common, and in many cases, this is with athletes
who were already fairly strong relative to their bodyweight. I also like it because it works
well across the board for younger and weaker athletes as well as stronger and more
experienced ones. It is our “go to” methodology for programming our main lifts. With The
Juggernaut Method 2.0 Chad has stepped it up a level again. Don’t think this is just the
old Juggernaut book with a couple of bells and whistles added. The new version is
packed with new information and would, in my opinion, benefit anyone from the average
joe training in his garage to the professional strength and conditioning coach like myself.
ANDY HEPLER
HEPLER STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING | WWW.HEPLERSTRENGTH.COM
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AB O U T T H E AU T H O R
Chad Wesley Smith is the owner and head performance coach at Juggernaut
Training Systems. In addition to his duties at Juggernaut, Chad is the American
Record Holder in the squat at the 308 pound weight class with a 905 pound
effort in just a belt and knee wraps.
Smith’s total of 2165 was among the top 10 in the World during 2011 when it
was achieved. Smith is also a two-time national champion in the shot put with
a PR of 19.46m. Smith is now a competitive Strongman with his eyes on
competing in the World’s Strongest Man contest in the coming years. At
Juggernaut, Smith has produced countless high level athletes, including 7
players who were drafted in the 2012 NFL Draft, including Shea McClellin, the
1st round selection of the
Chicago Bears. Smith has also
helped over 50 athletes in the
last 2 years continue their
careers on athletic scholarship.
There are multiple Juggernaut
athletes competing for USC,
UCLA, University of Washington,
Harvard and other prestigious
universities.
WHAT IS T H E J U G G E RN AU T MET H O D
The Juggernaut Method grew out some simple training cycles I had my athletes
doing. They were doing something to the affect of…Week 1-5x5 at 70-75%,
Week 2-3x5 at 80%, Week 3-Work to a 5rm. I normally intend for a 5rm to be
done around 85% and my athletes would complete their set of 5 with 85% and
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Juggernaut’s 2012 College Football Prep Class was filled with tremendous workers and athletes
then often another with 5-15 pounds more. They would then either perform
another wave of 5s with a new exercise or move onto a similar program of 3s in
the same lift. The program was working pretty well.
During a break from my track competitions I decided to give this plan a try
myself. In the squat the first week I did 455 for 5x5, the next week I built up to
495 for 3x5, and in the third week 545x5. Immediately upon racking the last
rep, I had a realization—I should have kept going. Five reps wasn’t hard, I could
have done 8, I should have done 8. That began the process of me critically
thinking about this simple program, fine tuning it and making it grow into what
you see before you now.
The Juggernaut Method has grown out of 3 main influences: Jim Wendler’s
5/3/1, the training of the great Doug Young and Block Periodization. From 5/3/1
it takes the idea of a progressive overload system of percentages, making small
incremental gains, setting rep maxes and simplicity.
Doug Young, a tremendous physical specimen and top bench presser from the
1970s, utilized rep records to influence his training weights on a weekly basis.
Young’s training would focus on a final limit set each session. For example, he
would perform 4x6 for a few weeks but instead of performing only 6 reps on the
last set, he would perform as many as possible and for every rep beyond 6
completed, he would adjust the next weeks weights accordingly. The
Juggernaut Method borrows this idea of adjusting the athlete’s training weights
based on their performance, instead of just a standardized number.
When I say that the Juggernaut Method has been influenced by Block
Periodization, it is more in spirit than practice. Block Periodization is broken
into 3 phases: Accumulation—a high volume general phase, Intensification—
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where intensity increases along with specificity, while volume decreases, and
Realization-in which intensity reaches a peak during the competitive season. I
have borrowed this language in the form of an Accumulation, Intensification and
Realization week within each training wave. I will discuss the idea behind each
week a bit later.
The Juggernaut Method is an effective training plan for a wide variety of
disciplines, from any sport that would benefit from increased strength, speed
and power, to competitive powerlifters or strongmen.
J U G G E RN AU T T RA IN IN G PH I LO SO PH Y
All of the World’s strongest and fastest athletes train differently, some front
squat, some back squat, some power clean some don’t and while these
differences in training exist everywhere, there are a few things they all have in
common, they all Sprint, Jump, Throw and Lift. These movements are the
foundation of all athleticism and therefore should be the foundation of your
training. Focusing your training on these basics will get you stronger, leaner,
faster and more powerful in every way. Let’s examine each element a bit more in
depth.
SP R IN T
Sprinting is the highest velocity that the human body can move and because of
this, it provides a tremendous stimulus to the body. If you have ever seen a high
level sprinter, you know that they are thickly muscled through the lower body,
shoulders and back, while being absolutely shredded. The high velocity and
whole body nature of sprinting is great to recruit fast twitch muscle fibers and
provide a powerful fat burning effect.
There are three main areas of focus when training sprints, acceleration,
maximum speed and speed endurance. Acceleration training will cover
distances up to 30m, maximum speed work is done from 30-60m and speed
endurance work can be from 60-300m or repeated efforts at shorter distances
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with incomplete rest periods (which is
known as alactic capacity)
J U MP S
Jumps are the best way to develop
explosive strength in the lifter, because
they come at a lower neurological and
physical cost than sprinting. Jumps will
help the athlete to develop the high rate
Chad is a prime example of how jumping
will carryover to your maximal strength.
of force development needed to be
explosive in the squat, bench and
deadlift. Note that I said the bench, because my definition of jumping
encompasses both lower and upper body jumps. Lower body jumps are more
traditionally understood and include jumps up (box jumps from the standing or
seated position, jumps up hill), jumps down (altitude landing from a box), jumps
up and down (depth jumps, hurdle/barrier jumps, reactive jumps for distance,
reactive jumps up and down to a box).
It is important that when training jumps, the first thing that must be taught is
how to land properly. Landing softly and demonstrating proper body control is
paramount to training jumps properly and safely and are both qualities that will
be evident in any good power/speed athlete. These same principles hold true
for upper body jumps, consisting of pushups onto boxes, drop pushups
(jumping off boxes and landing on the floor), rebound pushups (dropping off of
one box and jumping onto another) and various other variations (clapping
pushups, pushups while alternating hand positions, etc).
T H R OW S
Medicine ball throws are a great tool to develop explosive power through the
entire body. Medicine ball throws are superior developers of explosive power to
Olympic lifts because of their uninhibited triple extension, multi directional/
planar movement, high velocities and ease of learning. Olympic lifts are limited
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Oakland Raiders’ 2012 4th Round Pick and Juggernaut athlete,
Miles Burris, is a prime example of the impact sprinting will have
on your physique.
by the fact that you hold onto the bar at the completion of the lift, meaning that
whether consciously or unconsciously you will decelerate at the completion of
the lift. This though is not the case with medicine ball throws, as you will
release the ball at the finish and accelerate throughout the movement. Medicine
ball throws are not relegated to purely linear triple extension on the vertical
plane, like Olympic lifts are. They can be done vertically, horizontally or
rotational, they will make you able to generate force in every direction, which is
critical to success in speed/power sports. The velocities achieved during
explosive medicine ball throws are also much closer to those occurring on the
field of play. Medicine ball throws are very simple to learn, so you don’t have to
waste much time learning the technical skills of a sport you don’t compete in,
you can simply begin building the explosive power needed to succeed in your
endeavor of choice. If you need any convincing on the tremendous benefits of
throwing on your athleticism, take a few moments to look up Olympic shot put,
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Chad coaching a group of athletes through medicine ball
throws at a seminar in Boston at Total Performance Sports.
javelin, hammer or javelin competitors; you will surely find that they are among
the most powerful and coordinated athletes on earth.
SU B M A X IM A L T R A I N I N G
Submaximal training is a great option for both the lifter and the athlete because
it is less taxing to the central nervous system and joints, allows you to build
confidence, gives you the ability to make small incremental gains over a long
period of time and for the athlete who also must develop sporting skill, it does
not rob you of your energy needed to devote towards your sport practice,
which is the most critical component of your success. Training with near
maximal weights is certainly a proven method to improve your limit strength, but
is also a recipe for overtraining and injury. Using submaximal loads, 60-90% of
your 1rm, and moving them with maximal force, allows you to still fully recruit
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the necessary muscle fibers, ingrain proper technique to your lifts, and diminish
your trainings impact on your central nervous system.
When using submaximal loads and setting rep records, you can avoid ever
missing a lift. Missing lifts is a bad habit that will ruin your psyche as a lifter.
You don’t get stronger from missing weights, only making them. By using
submaximal loads, you can incrementally move up your working weights over a
long period of time, which will allow you to keep making progress and avoid
overtraining. For athletes (non-Strongman, Powerlifting, Olympic Lifting
competitors) it is critical to utilize submaximal loads in your training, particularly
during practice periods (which should be almost always to varying degrees) so
as to not interfere with the athlete’s ability to devote the necessary attention
and energy to their sport practice.
Sport practice is the only irreplaceable component of an athlete’s success.
There are football players who can’t bench or squat, yet still be successful,
while there will never be one who can’t practice and be successful. Keep in
mind for the strength sport athlete (powerlifter, strongman, olympic lifter) the
competitive lifts (bench, squat, clean, yoke, farmers, stones, clean & jerk,
snatch, etc) are their sports practice. The legendary sprints coach, the late
Charlie Francis, likened the central nervous system to a cup, explaining how a
cups capacity is finite. Everything the athlete does will fill that cup up to some
degree, with high intensity stressors (practicing at maximal intensity, sprinting,
max effort or dynamic effort weights, throws, jumps) filling up the cup the most.
An athlete needs to fill up their cup with what is the most important, sports
practice and its accompanying drills and all physical preparation tasks need to
compliment that. If the cup overflows, the athlete is overtrained, which is a long
and arduous process to recover from.
Plain and simple, never miss reps. Missing reps doesn’t make you stronger,
making them does. Missing reps is a bad habit to get into and will damage your
psyche and confidence. By training with submaximal weights, you should easily
be avoided. When setting rep records, an integral part of The Juggernaut
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Method, it is critical to avoid missing reps, but rather you want to finish on a
powerful, clean rep.
R E S U LT S D R I V E N P R O G R E S S
Fact, athletes and lifters will progress at different rates. Whether it is due a
difference in training age, genetics or anything else, it is inevitable that all lifters
will be unique in their progress. Knowing that, why would you move your
training weights up by a standard increment. The Juggernaut Method is driven
by your progress, which will be unique from anyone of your training partners.
This results driven progress is particularly useful when working in large group or
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team settings. Moving up your weights from week to week is very necessary to
make progress, it is the most basic form of progressive overload. How much to
move them from week to week though is a more complicated issue. I want my
athletes to motivated to push their rep maxes as hard as possible and to
motivate them towards this I want their increments to be driven by their rep
maxes. I will explain later how this will work.
Rep records are an integral part of this program. Too many athletes are
absorbed in their 1-rep max. This program has been very frustrating in that
sense to some of my athletes because I won’t allow them to take a 1-rep max
for such a long time. They will say something to the affect of “I really wanna see
if I can bench 250 today,” I’ll tell them, “No, but when you get 250 on the bar
you are gonna do it for more than 1 rep.” Setting rep records in the 3-10+ rep
range not only will indicate your strength gains, it is also less stressful on the
joints and CNS. Rep records can also be easily compared using the following
equation:
(WEIGHT X REPS X .033)
+
WEIGHT
=
PROJECTED MAX
Be mindful that rep records in the 8+ rep range aren’t as accurate as
projections from the lower range. Take this into account when comparing rep
records from vastly different rep ranges.
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SIM P L IC IT Y
Getting strong is simple. Note that their is a great difference between
something being simple and something being easy. When examining the training
programs of top lifters, there are great differences from one athlete to another,
but there are a few key things that they all share in common. They bench, they
squat, they deadlift and they break PRs. Focusing on big lifts, good technique
and making small improvements each session will yield you great results in the
long run. Strength is a long term investment, many top lifters have added a few
pounds of muscle per year and a few pound to their lifts per year, but those
years add up. Consistency is king, so be patient, stay consistent and you will
make great progress.
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T HE P R O G RA M
The Juggernaut Method is a simple
program, divided into 4 waves (10s,
8s, 5s and 3s), each wave consists of
3 phases. These phases consist of 4
training sessions each. It is designed
to be used on the 4 big lifts: Bench
Press, Squat, Military Press and
Deadlift.
Greg Robins, of Cressey Performance in Massachusetts,
pulling big in his Juggernaut Jacked tank
ACCU MU LAT ION P HASE
The accumulation phase is the beginning of each training wave. They are high
volume sessions designed to allow you to develop the skill of the lift, increase
work capacity and become masterful within the given rep range.
IN T E N S IF ICAT I O N P H A S E
The intensification phase will increase the intensity from the accumulation
phase while reducing the volume to approximately 60%.
R E A L IZ AT IO N P H A S E
The realization phase is when the gains of the past wave come to fruition in one
set of maximal reps.
C H O O S IN G YO U R WO R K I N G M A X
It is important to start out light with your working max. Your working max is the
number that all your percentages will be based off of. Being conservative in
choosing your initial working max is key to making progress over the long term.
I suggest taking your 1rm (an actual 1rm or 3rm that you have done within the
past 6 weeks, not a theoretical max or something you did back in the day,
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and then take 90% of that. So if your recently benched 315x1, you will use 285
as your working max.
T H E P E R C E N TAG E S
These are the sets, reps and percentages that you will use for each phase and
each wave:
10 S WAV E
8 S WAV E
5 S WAV E
3 S WAV E
Accumulation
60%x5x10
65%x5x8
70%x6x5
75%x7x3
Intensification
55%x5,
60%x3,
65%x2,
70%x1,
62.5%x5,
67.5%x3,
72.5%x2,
77.5%x1,
67.5%x3x10
72.5%x3x8
77.5%x4x5
82.%x5x3
50%x5,
50%x5,
50%x5,
50%x5,
60%x3,
60%x3,
60%x3,
60%x3,
70%x1,
70%x2,
70%x2,
70%x2,
75%xAMAP
75%x1,
75%x1,
75%x1,
80%xAMAP
80%x1,
80%x1,
85%xAMAP
85%x1,
Realization
90%xAMAP
THE LAST SET
The last set each week is not necessarily done for the written reps, but will be
done for maximal or near maximal reps.
For example, during the Intensification Phase of the 8s Wave an athlete with a
working max of 500 pounds in the squat could have a training session that
looks like this:
300 (60%) x3
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340 (67.5%) x3
|
365 (72.%) x8, 8, 11
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The last set though is not necessarily an all out effort, nor should it be. Training
to failure weak after weak is taxing to the body and a difficult task to recover
from, so it is important that you pick your battles and have a goal each week.
During the Accumulation Phase I suggest that an athlete leaves 2-3 reps in the
tank on their final work set. So once the minimum, prescribed reps have been
completed, an athlete can continue performing reps but should be mindful to
stay 2-3 reps shy of failure.
During the Intensification Phase an athlete should end their final set 1-2 reps
shy of failure.
During the Realization Phase, no reps should be left in the tank. Maximal
effort is required on the AMAP (as many as possible) set.
It is also important for you to have a goal in mind for your final set each week,
do not step under the bar for the final set with the mindset that you are just
gonna see how you feel. You should know at the beginning of each wave what
your goal is for the final set of each phase. Having set goals will be of
immeasurable benefit in your training.
M OV IN G U P YO U R WO R K I N G M A X
This is the most important part of this program. Your working max will be
adjusted at the end of each wave depending on your performance during the
Realization Phase. For every rep you perform over the standard (The standard is
10 in the 10s Wave, 8 in the 8s Wave, etc) you will move your working max up a
set amount.
[(R EP S P E R F O R M E D – S TA N DARD ) X I NCREMENT PER REP] + WO RK I NG MAX
= NEW WO RK I NG MAX
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For example, an athlete with a working max of 405 pounds in the squat who
performs 12 reps during the realization phase of their 8s wave on the squat
using a 5 pound increment per rep would do the following:
[(12-8) x 5] + 405 = 425
The amount that is used for the increment per rep varies, you can choose to
either move your max up 2.5 pounds for upper body lifts and 5 pounds for
lower body lifts per rep or 1.25 pounds for upper body lifts and 2.5 pounds for
lower body lifts per rep. I also advise setting a cap on the amount which you
can move your working max up. This cap should be set at 10 reps above the
standard. So if an athlete performed 22 reps during their 10s wave, which is 12
reps beyond the standard, only 10 of those reps would be considered when
adjusting the working max. These very high reps are common in young or
inexperienced athletes who are performing their first waves. Which of these
increment per rep options you choose to use is very important and dependent
on a few things.
1) Strength- If you are strong and have a high working max (400+ pounds in a
given lift) it is less significant for your to move your working max up by 2.5 and
5 pounds per rep than an athlete with maxes in the 150-300 pound range.
For example an athlete with a 450 pound working max in the deadlift who
moves their working max up 20 pounds from one wave to the next is only
making a jump of 4.4%, while an athlete with a 205 pound working max in the
bench press who also tries to make a 20 pound jump from one wave to the next
is making 9.8% jump. It will be much more difficult for the athlete with the lower
working max to make their reps and continue progressing after making such a
significant jump, so the athlete with the 205 bench max should decide to only
make 1.25 pound per rep jumps in their upper body lifts.
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It is possible that you posses much better numbers in either your upper body or
lower body lifts respectively. For example, an athlete with a 300 pound bench
and 350 pound deadlift could be well served to decide to make 2.5 pound per
rep jumps for both lifts.
2) Training Age- If you have been lifting for 20 years you just aren’t going to
make progress as rapidly as someone who has been lifting for 9 months, you
will be better served to choose to make smaller jumps.
3) Relationship between working max and projected max- It is critical that
your working max stay 5-10% below your projected maxes to continue making
steady progress. You need to choose the increment which allows this to
happen.
I will lay out a few scenarios for you to get a better idea of what I mean by this.
AT H L E T E 1
500 pound working deadlift max, completed the 8s wave by performing 11
repetitions (3 reps over the standard) of 400 pounds (80%) during their
realization phase. 400 pounds for 11 reps in a projected max of 545 pounds. If
they move their working max up by increments of 5 pounds, their new working
max will be 515 pounds (5.8% less than their projected max). This athlete is fine
to use 5 pound increments in this situation.
AT H L E T E 2
225 pounds working bench max, completed 5s wave by performing 9 reps (4
over the standard) with 190 pounds (80%). 190 for 9 reps is a projected max of
245 pounds. If they move their working max up by increments of 2.5 pounds,
their new working max will be 235 pounds (4.1% less than their projected max).
This athlete should instead use 1.25 pound increments and move their working
max to 230 pounds (6.5% less than their projected max).
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If you are willing to do a little bit of math this problem can be greatly simplified.
I discussed earlier the need to keep at least a 5% difference between your
projected max and working max, to find that relationship use the following
equation:
( W E I G H T X REPS X . 033) + WEI G H T /
[(R E P S P E R F O R M E D – S TA N DA RD ) X BI G I NCREMENT PER REP] + WO RK I NG MAX
= DIFFERENCE
OR
P R O J E C T E D M A X / BI G WO RK I NG MAX = D I FFERENCE
Big Working Max refers to your new working max using the larger option of the
increments per rep (2.5 pounds for upper body lifts and 5 pounds for lower
body lifts). If the difference here is 1.05 or greater, then you are fine using this
option. If it is less than 1.05 then use the smaller options (1.25 and 2.5 pounds
respectively for upper and lower lifts)
While in the example of Athlete 2, the distinction between moving up the
working max 1.25 or 2.5 pounds per rep seems like a small difference, it will
greatly affect their progress over the course of many waves.
Choosing which increments per rep to use when adjusting your working max is
an important decision and one that can have great impact on your future
progress. When in doubt, compare your projected max to your possible new
working maxes, if you aren’t staying >5% above your working max in your
projected max you should use the smaller increments. If you are still unsure
about which is the right decision for you, err on the side of caution and use the
smaller increment.
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Now that I have you thoroughly confused, let’s take a look at an example
training Wave so we can straighten some things out. Here is my 8s Wave:
Accumulation
BE NCH- 425
S Q UAT- 6 85
MI LI TA RY-2 4 5
DE A D- 6 2 0
275x8, 8, 8, 8,
445x8, 8, 8, 8,
160x8, 8, 8, 8,
405x8, 8, 8,
15
10
15
8, 16
225x3, 285x3,
405x3, 465x3,
145x3, 165x3,
375x3,
315x8, 8, 11
500x8, 8, 12
180x8, 8, 10
425x3,
455x8, 8, 8
215x5, 255x3,
345x5, 410x3,
125x5, 145x3,
315x5,
295x2, 315x1,
340x11
480x2, 515x1,
550x11
170x2, 185x1,
195x11
375x3,
435x2,
Intensification
Realization
465x1,
495x11
Deload
170x5, 215x5,
275x5, 345x5,
95x5, 125x5,
245x5,
255x5
410x5
145x5
315x5,
375x5
The number in parentheses next to each lift at the top of the column in my
working max for this wave. Notice that I am taking the last set to at least the
prescribed reps every week. With only one exception did I stop at the minimum
(8 in this case) reps and that is only because I was feeling poorly that day. The
fact that I did 11 reps on my final set during the realization week for every lift is
purely coincidence.
I use 2.5 and 5 pounds per reps respectively for my upper and lower body lifts
to move my maxes up. With that being said, I moved my working maxes to
432.5 for Bench, 700 for Squat, 252.5 for Military and 635 for Deadlift.
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T H E D E L OA D
At the completion of each wave of training, you should perform a deload week.
There are many ways to deload, the most important thing to consider during a
deload though is recovery, not work. During the deload I suggest performing
your main lift for 40%x5, 50%x5, 60%x5 and then performing each of your
accessory lifts for 50% of their normal volume (So if you normally do 50 total
reps of chinups during your training waves, during your deload you will do 25).
These percentages should be based upon your working max from the wave you
have just completed, NOT your new adjusted max for the upcoming wave.
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
22
WA R M U PS
Warmups have the ability to greatly enhance or greatly diminish an athlete’s
ability to perform to the maximum capabilities. Warmups are also a great time
to build General Physical Preparation in the lifter. It is important to understand
the difference between general work capacity and special work capacity. While
general work capacity is the basis of all work capacity, it will only get you so far,
as it is special work capacity (i.e.. the ability to practice your sport with both
high quality and quantity) that will set you apart. Your general warmup will be
aimed at developing your GPP while your special work capacity will be
developed through the type of high volume, high frequency, controlled rest
period training, The Juggernaut Method will put you through.
Let’s examine the several different warmups that you will utilize while training on
The Juggernaut Method.
G E N E R A L WA R M U P
Each training session should begin with this General Warmup which is aimed to
raise your core temperature, increase your mobility and improve joint fluidity.
1. Abs 3x10 each
-In and Outs
-Moving Front Plank
-Moving Side Planks
-McGill Situps
2. Joint Mobility x10 each direction
-Neck
-Shoulders
-Small Arms
-Big Arms
-Chest PNF Pattern
-Hip Circles
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
23
-Good Mornings
-Trunk Circles
-Quadruped Bent Leg Raises
-Quadruped Bent Leg Circles
-Quadruped Straight Leg Raises
-Quadruped Donkey Kicks
SQ UAT /D E A D L I F T WA R M U P
Prior to squatting and deadlifting, it is critical to ensure that your glutes are
activated, as well as your CNS being primed to apply maximum velocity to the
bar.
1a. Overhead Wall Squats w/ PVC Pipe 2x10
1b. KB Between the Legs Squats on Blocks-2x10
1c. Band X Walks-2x10 yds each way
1d. Band TKEs-2x20 each leg
2. KB Swings x10-20, fire glutes as hard as possible at top of rep
3. Box Jumps-3x3 to low/medium height box, if you are performing box
jumps
as part of your training session these can be skipped or used as a
warmup for the more intense jumps to follow.
B E N C H /M ILI TA RY P R E S S WA R M U P
It is important to improve your scapular mobility and activation, to both improve
your pressing power and ensure your shoulder health.
1. MB Prone Shoulder Mobility x10 each
-Halos
-Straight Arm Raises
-Bent Arm Raises
2. Band Scapular Mobility x10-20 each
-Band Scapular Retractions
-Band Face Pulls
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
24
3. Plate Warmup x10 each
-Inward Circles
-Outward Circles
-Empty Cans
-External Rotations
SP R IN T /J U M P WA R M U P
The velocity the body achieves during sprinting and jumping is very high and
because of this it places great stress on the hamstrings, quads and groin
muscles. It is critical to very thoroughly warm these areas up before beginning
your sprint/jump training, as well as, improving your technical abilities and
rhythm/relaxation. The drills are listed as Running Drill/Walking Mobility Drill.
1. Power/Speed Drills x10-15 yds each
-A Skips/Walking Hamstrings
-Butt Kicks/Walking Lunges w/ Forearm to Ground
-High Knees/Foot to Butt
-Shuffle/Shuffle
-Backpedal/Knee to Chest
-Low Pogo Jumps/Side Lunges
-Rolling Hops/High Kicks
2. Static or Partner Stretching x20-30 seconds each
-Hamstrings
-Adductors
-Abductors
-Prioformis
-Hip Flexors
3. Build Up and Fast Easy Running 1-3x20-40yds each
-Build Up is a smooth acceleration to 80% of full speed
-Fast Easy is a 90% burst to 10yds and speed maintenance for the
rest
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
25
T H R OW IN G WA R M U P
Increasing the range of motion through the shoulders, hips and low back is key
to maximizing the distance of your throws, and thus their training stimulus, as
well as maintaining your health while performing these explosive whole body
movements.
1. MB Mobility Circuit x10 each
-Prone MB Halos
-Prone MB Straight Arm Raises
-Supine Straight Arm Pullovers
-Supine Glute Bridges with MB b/t knees
-MB Squats holding ball in front of body
-MB Swings
-MB Diagonal Chops
-MB Overhead Reverse Lunges
-MB Around the Worlds
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
26
T HE I N V E RTE D J U G G E RN AU T MET H O D
The Inverted Juggernaut Method is no my preferred structure to use with both
myself and my athletes. The Inverted Juggernaut Method is exactly what is
sounds like, an inversion of the sets and reps during the 10s and 8s wave. I
now believe this to be a superior structure because it allows for higher quality
(technique and bar speed) on every rep. When performing 5 sets of 10 reps
with 60%, particularly with younger/less experienced athletes, for technique to
break down.
For example, the 1st set may have 10 identical looking reps, while the 2nd set
has 8 good reps and 2 poor reps (either from a technical or velocity standpoint),
3rd is is 7 good and 3 poor, 4th is 6 good and 4 poor and the 5th is 5 good and
5 poor. In this scenario, the athlete performed 36 good reps and 14 reps that
reinforced poor technique. When using the Inverted Juggernaut Method, the
athlete would perform 10 sets of 5 reps at 60% with 1 minute rest between
sets; performing the sets in this fashion will allow the athlete to perform all 50
reps with great technique and great speed.
When performing submaximal work with the goal of improving maximal strength,
it is critical that all reps are done at or near maximal velocity and with great
technique, the identical technique that you would use under maximal weights.
Another great benefit to utilizing the Inverted Juggernaut Method, is the
development of special work capacity. Performing high volume work (high
volume through a large amount of sets) on controlled rest period will prepare
your body like nothing else can to perform high quality work. Special work
capacity is critical for athletes of any sport, special work capacity is the ability
to practice one’s sport with high volume and high quality, and for the lifter their
practice is the squat, bench and deadlift.
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
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Let’s take a look at the structure of the sets, reps, percentages and rest periods
utilized in the Inverted Juggernaut Method:
WE E K
S ET S X R EP S X %
R EST P E RI OD
10s Accumulation
10x5x60%
1 min
10s Intensification
10x3x67.5%
90 sec
10s Realization
Up to 75%xAMAP
As Needed
8s Accumulation
8x5 at 65%
75 seconds
8s Intensification
8x3 at 72.5%
115 seconds
8s Realization
Up to 80%xAMAP
As Needed
Remember that to develop special work capacity and derive the full effects of
this training it is critical to stay to the prescribed rest periods. If you are not fit
enough to handle the workload within these time parameters, just add a fixed
amount of time to them (i.e.. 15 or 30 seconds).
H I/ME D /L OW S T R U C T U R E
Another extremely effective model to use with the Inverted Juggernaut Method
is a high-medium-low volume structure. During each week you will perform a
(relatively) low, high and medium volume training session for each the bench
press and squat/deadlift, so there are 6 training session performed each week.
When performing this type of high frequency, high volume training, I would
encourage you to perform the minimum prescribed reps of each session,
instead of the usual practice of taking the final set past the prescribed number.
When using this high medium low structure, you will use 3 different bench
variations and 3 different squat/deadlift variations each week. Try to pick
exercises that train different aspects of the lift, either different ranges of motion
or stress different muscle groups. Using this high frequency training model will
give the athlete great practice at the lifts, develop special work capacity,
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
28
improve strength through the entire body and more than anything will build a lot
of flexibility into your programming. This idea of building flexibility into your
programming is known as the consolidation of stressors.
Before we look more in depth at the concept of consolidation of stressors, let’s
examine the percentage scheme and organization of training using this highmedium-low structure:
10s
Accum
DAY 1
DAY 2
DAY 3
2 Board
Press-6x5
Squat-10x5
at 60%
Floor
Press-8x5
Front
Squat-6x
at 60%
5 at 60%
Floor
Press-8x3
Front
Squat-6x
at 67.5%
3 at
at 60%
10s Intens
2 Board
Press-6x3
Squat-10x3
at 67.5%
at 67.5%
DAY 4
DAY 5
DAY 6
Bench-10x5
at 60%
Deadlift8x5 at
60%
Bench-10x3
at 67.5%
Deadlift8x3 at
67.5%
67.5%
10s Realiz
2 Board
Press-3x5
Squat-Up to
75%xAMAP
at 50-60%
8s Accum
2 Board
Press-4x5
Squat-8x5
at 65%
at 65%
8s Intens
2 Board
Press-4x3
Squat-8x3
at 72.5%
at 72.5%
Floor
Press-3x5
Front
Squat-3x
Bench-Up
to
Deadlift3x5 at
at
5 at
75%xAMAP
50-60%
50-60%
50-60%
Floor
Press-6x5
Front
Squat-4x
Bench-8x5
at 65%
Deadlift6x5 at
at 65%
5 at 65%
Floor
Press-6x3
Front
Squat-4x
at 72.5%
3 at
65%
Bench-8x3
at 72.5%
Deadlift6x3 at
72.5%
72.5%
8s Realiz
2 Board
Press-3x5
at 50-60%
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
Squat-Up to
80%xAMAP
Floor
Press-3x5
Front
Squat-3x
Bench-Up
to
Deadlift3x5 at
at
5 at
80%xAMAP
50-60%
50-60%
50-60%
29
C ONS O L IDAT IO N O F ST RESSO RS
Over the course of a training plan, as an athlete gets stronger/faster/more
explosive (generally more capable of higher outputs), recovery becomes of
paramount importance. Over the course of the training cycle, you must begin to
remove (or reduce focus on) the less necessary from the training plan. Also you
must begin to consolidate the most intensive training stressors to the same
sessions/days, to allow for improved recovery on the other days.
The idea of consolidating your intensive training stressors is critical because
you cannot continue adding to a training plan and you can only intensify so
many things at once. The legendary sprints coach, Charlie Francis, likened your
Central Nervous System to a cup, all the training you do fills up that cup to a
varying degree and once the cup overflows, you have become overtrained.
Consolidating intensive training stressors over the course of a training plan is
critical to provide recovery time and keep your cup from overflowing.
The first step in being able to consolidate intensive training stressors over the
course of a training plan, is to identify what is an intensive stressor and what is
not. Intensive training stressors for the athlete consist of the following:
Practice
Practice drills or scrimmages done at competition intensity. This particularly
needs to be considered in sports that present a large muscular effort like
combat sports, football, rugby, hockey or high sprinting/jumping volumes like
soccer, lacrosse, basketball and volleyball. Due to the fact that practice
schedules vary so widely and are often without a planned intensity structure,
they will not be included within this discussion.
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30
Sprints
Maximum speed work done at over 90-95% intensity
Jumps
Maximum intensity jumps done in any fashion (onto a box, off a box, for
distance, etc). This also includes upper body jumps, i.e. plyometric pushup
variations.
Throws
Maximum intensity explosive throws. These could be medicine ball throws, PUD
throws, keg throws, throwing rocks/dumbbells/plates/etc, shot/disc/hammer/
javelin throws or even something that is very high velocity/low force like a
baseball throw. Obviously for a throwing athlete, some of these drills may fall
under ‘Practice’, while other general drills would fall under this category.
SPP Drills
These are special drills that mimic the velocity, duration and direction of
sporting activities. These will vary too greatly from sport to sport to list all the
options here.
SPP Drills like this can both be done in an alactic and lactic manner depending
on the work/rest intervals utilized. Alactic and Lactic capacity work, particularly
highly lactic work like that what is often popular among combat athletes, is very
stressful to the body and requires ample recovery.
Primary Lifts
These will vary from athlete to athlete but consist of variations of the squat,
bench press, deadlift, overhead press/jerk, clean, snatch and rows/pullups.
Loading these drills in either a ME manner (over 85%) or a DE manner (45-70%
for maximal speed) are both considered hi intensity CNS stressors. Assistance
exercises could also turn into high intensity stressors if they are loaded in such
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
31
a manner, either being done to rep maxes or being performed to failure. Avoid
letting your accessory lifts to primary lifts.
C O N S O L IDAT I N G W I T H I N A T R A I N I N G PLAN
Now that we have established what are constitutes a high intensity training
stressor, let’s now examine how to consolidate these over the course of a
training plan. For the purposes of this article, all of the microcycles we will
discuss will be 3 weeks long.
An important idea to understand in the context of this article is output. The
speed, distance, weight, velocity capable of being achieved in a given exercise
by a particular athlete is its output. Outputs are a measure of absolute speed,
weight, distance and velocity, is isn’t relative to the exercise or necessarily the
athlete. With that being said, understand that maximum velocity (Yards or
Meters per second) is the ultimate measure of sprinting output, weight the
ultimate measure of lifting output and distance (either vertical or lateral) the
measure of jumping and throwing output.
Some exercises are more conducive to higher outputs; for example higher
velocities can be achieved in flat land sprints than hill or sled sprints; depth
jump variations and multiple response jump variations produce higher ground
contact forces and output capabilities than single response box jumps, bilateral
barbell lifts allow for greater weight (high output) to be moved than unilateral or
dumbbell movements. Also, stronger/older/more experienced athletes are
capable of higher outputs and are thus more capable of trashing their muscular
and nervous systems by overtraining.
For example, an Olympic sprinter is capable of far greater maximal outputs than
a high school athlete. For the purpose of this discussion, let’s say that the
Olympic athlete is capable of running 28.0 miles per hour while the high school
athlete is capable of 23.0 mph. Maximum outputs are much more important
than relative outputs in regards to the consolidation of stressors; this is true
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
32
because the faster/stronger/more explosive athlete isn’t just capable of higher
outputs, they are also more efficient in their technique and fiber recruitment and
are thus operating nearer their ultimate output potential.
To further illustrate this point; it is possible for many of my high school athletes
who run in the 11.0-11.25 range (a good but not outstanding time for a HS
athlete) in the 100m to run multiple repetitions of 100m in the 11.1 to 11.37
range, while it is nearly inconceivable for a very highly qualified athlete
(9.85-9.99 seconds) to run multiple times within the same range of their
maximum speed. As you progress through a program you should move from
exercises with reduced output capabilities to those which allow for greater
outputs. Below is a list of exercise progressions that allow for continually higher
outputs, listed from lowest to highest possible outputs:
Sprints
Uphill Running As, Flatland Running As, Uphill Sprints, Flatland Sprints, Flying
Sprints
Lower Body Jumps
Extensive Pogo Jumps, Single Response Box Jumps/Jump for Distance,
Multiple Response Box Jumps/Jumps for Distance, Multiple Response Box
Jumps/Jumps for Distance, Hurdle Hops, Depth Jumps
Upper Body Jumps
Clap Pushups, Pushups onto a Box, Drop Pushups, Rebound Pushups
Early on in a training plan, for example during the beginning of the offseasonimmediately after the competitive season has ended, you need to create
breadth in your training stressors, meaning that you must spread your intensive
training stressors over many days. Doing this will limit your output capabilities,
which is fine during this time period because you will most likely be in a slightly
detrained state and wont be capable of high level outputs anyways. During a
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
33
time when you are dealing with an athlete that has low output capabilities,
whether that is because they are coming off a period of a lack of training or
have a low training age, you want to create a high frequency training plan to
give them as much exposure/practice as possible to various drills. Also due to
the relatively low strength levels that athletes like this possess, it is difficult for
them to overtrain the CNS. Here is an example of how the first week of such a
training cycle would be structure:
DAY 1
DAY 2
DAY 3
DAY 4
DAY 5
DAY 6
DAY 7
Medium
Medium
Medium
Medium
Medium
Medium
Off
Sprints
Throws
Sprints
Throws
Sprints
Throws
Off
Jumps
Lower
Jumps
Lower
Jumps
Lower
Body
Body
Body
Upper
Primary
Upper
Primary
Upper
Primary
Body
Weights
Body
Weights
Body
Weights
Primary
Weights
Primary
Lower
Weights
Body
Primary
Lower
Weights
Body
Lower
Body
Upper
Assistance
Upper
Assistance
Upper
Assistance
Body
Weights
Body
Weights
Body
Weights
Aerobic
Assistance
Weights
Aerobic
Assistance
Weights
Aerobic
Assistance
Weights
Capacity
Capacity
Capacity
Drills
Drills
Drills
You will notice during this phase that sprints/jumps are being performed on
opposite days from primary lower body weights. The medium written above
each days activities, is referring to the intensity level of the day’s training. This
is being done with the intention of limiting output capabilities because obviously
sprints/jumps are taxing to the lower body and will limit your output abilities on
the next days squats/deadlifts and those squats/deadlifts will limit your output
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
34
Military Pressing is a great builder of the bench press.
capabilities on the following
days sprints/jumps. This is
done by design to allow the
athlete to allow the athlete to train with a high frequency and learn the
necessary techniques of the various movements required to improve speed,
power and strength.
Also since the athlete wasn’t capable of particularly high outputs during this
time period it is fine. The sprint work during this phase should be relegated to
power/speed drills such as high knees and skipping drills, hill sprints or sled
sprints. Drills like these will further limit their output capabilities, which is
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
35
necessary at this time to avoid any soft tissue injuries (i.e. Hamstring pulls), as
the body is not prepared for high velocity sprinting.
In respect to medicine ball throw training volume, you must reduce total
throwing volume from week to week because you will inevitably be able to
produce higher outputs from week to week due to practice in the movement
and continually improving power capacity. Volume must be reduced because
intensity is very difficult to limit/manipulate in medicine ball throws.
The lifting during this period should be relegated to submaximal loads (55-75%
of 1rm) such as that utilized in The Inverted Juggernaut Method or 5/3/1. A
great way to organize your lifting during this block is in a High/Medium/Low
volume scheme. During this 6 day week you will go through 1 day of high,
medium and low volume day for both your upper body and lower body primary
weights. You can perform the days in any sequence you choose, but I would
suggest doing Low Volume Upper Body, Hi Volume Lower Body, Med Volume
Upper Body, Low Volume Lower Body, Hi Volume Upper Body and Medium
Volume Upper Body.
I would also suggest choosing 3 different primary exercise variations for both
the lower and upper body, this will give you more flexibility when looking to
consolidate your work as time goes on which is critical when applying these
ideas. For the purposes of this example, we will use the Floor Press, 2 Board
Press and Bench Press as our primary upper body training exercises and Box
Squat, Front Squat and Back Squat as our lower body exercises. The deadlift
and it’s variations are also viable options here, but I choose not to use it with
my athletes because it is more taxing to the entire body than the squat is.
As you move through this period, your output abilities will have increased, as
will your need to allow more time for recovery. To help aid in your recovery, we
will now consolidate all of your lower body intensive stressors (sprints, lower
body jumps, lower body primary weights, lower body assistance training) to the
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
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same day. Consolidating your stressors in this manner will also allow for higher
outputs because you will no longer be pre-fatigued from the previous day’s
training.
Here is a look at the organization and breakdown of the weekly training
stressors:
DAY 1
DAY 2
DAY 3
DAY 4
DAY 5
DAY 6
DAY 7
Hi-
Medium-
Hi-
Medium-
Hi-Medium
Medium-
Off
Medium
Low
Medium
Low
Sprints
Throws
Sprints
Throws
Sprints
Throws
Lower
Upper
Lower
Upper
Lower
Upper
Jumps
Jumps
Jumps
Jumps
Jumps
Jumps
Lower
Upper
Lower
Upper
Lower
Upper
Primary
Primary
Primary
Primary
Primary
Primary
Weights
Weights
Weights
Weights
Weights
Weights
Lower
Upper
Lower
Upper
Lower
Upper
Assistance
Assistance
Assistance
Assistance
Assistance
Assistance
Weights
Weights
Weights
Weights
Weights
Weights
Low
Aerobic
Aerobic
Aerobic
Capacity
Capacity
Capacity
Drills
Drills
Drills
Off
During this period you will continue to utilize submaximal weights, as you/your
athletes continue to improve technical skills in the primary lifts. Progress you
sprinting drills, up one level, i.e. Extended Power Speed > Hills/Sleds or Hills/
Sleds > Flatland Sprints. Since you are still training with relatively high intensity
on a 6 day per week schedule, I suggest that you continue to utilize a Hi/Med/
Low volume structure.
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
37
The 3 rd step in a process like this requires a further compression of intensive
training stressors. Since you are now capable of significantly higher outputs,
you must now change the structure of the training week to reduce the
frequency of training. For this we will move to 2 upper body and 2 lower body
training days per week, with one day serving as a primary session (Max Effort
work) and the second day serving as a supplementary session. The
supplementary weights session should feature a lower output exercise as the
first movement and should be loaded in a submaximal nature; below I list
repetition ranges for the supplementary movements, to ensure that each is
being done submaximally you should feel as if 2-3 reps are being left in the tank
each set. For sprint training, I would now dedicate one day towards maximal
speed work and the second day towards acceleration work.
To further consolidate intensive training stressors you must move towards a full
body training template, moving all of your intensive training means to the same
days, reserving the other days solely for supplementary work and aerobic
capacity development drills. The following two example cycles will further
consolidate the training means and complete a 15 week training cycle (this
cycle could be extended to 18 weeks by taking a deload after the 2nd, 3 rd , 4 th
and 5 th training cycles, which I would suggest):
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
38
DAY 1
DAY 2
DAY 3
DAY 4
DAY 5
DAY 6
DAY 7
Hi
Low
Hi-Medium
Low
Hi
Low
Off
Speed
Aerobic
All Jumps
Aerobic
Speed
Aerobic
Off
Work
Capacity
Drills
Work
Throws
Capacity
Drills
Capacity
Drills
All Jumps
All Jumps
Accessory
Throws
Upper and
Throws
Lower
Primary
Body
Primary
Upper
Weights
Lower
Body
Body
Weights
Weights
Secondary
Secondary
Lower
Lower
Body
Body
Weights
Weights
The final incarnation of this structure will have you testing 1 rep maxes and will
drop the supplementary work from your Day 3 training. Notice that you have
now gone from 6 medium intensity days in Cycle 1 during each training week to
now finally, 2 extremely high stress days, 1 medium day, 3 low days and a day
off. This type of structure will allow for ample recovery between intensive
sessions.
Once you have reached this point in your training, depending where you are
relative to your competition schedule, you would continue to repeat a similarly
structure plan to this final cycle.
Consolidating stressors is critical to perform throughout the creation of annual
plan to provide your athletes with increased recovery time as their output
abilities improve. You must consider all intensive training stressors when
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
39
creating a training plan for yourself and your athletes, remember that you
cannot continually add training means or intensify too many means
simultaneously. Your ‘Cup’ is finite, consolidate stressors to prevent it from
overflowing.
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
40
U ND U L AT IN G PE RIO D IZ AT I O N MO D EL
One complaint that people have with the original Juggernaut Method, is they
feel they aren’t handling heavy weights often enough or that the 10s and 8s
waves aren’t strength builders. I disagree with this idea and feel that the 10s
and 8s waves are a necessary aspect of the training plan and while not
necessarily building maximal strength, they are building the foundation for big
lifts to come.
I do understand how some are uncomfortable going weeks or months without
handling maximal (or near maximal weights), even though I went for 4 months
without squatting anything over 635, leading up to my first 800 pound squat. A
way to structure your training, to allow you to more frequently handle heavy
weights, is an undulating periodization model. This undulating periodization
model is simple and just rearranges the wave structure of The Juggernaut
Method. To perform the undulating periodization model follow this structure:
Weeks 1-4: 10s Wave
Weeks 5-8: 5s Wave
Weeks 9-12: 8s Wave
Weeks 13-16: 3s Wave
Using this structure you will follow the same rules in moving up your working
max as you normally would in the original Juggernaut Method.
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
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T HE J U G G E RN AU T M ET H O D AN D
T HE 9 DAY WO RK WEEK
The 9 Day Work Week is a weekly training structure developed by myself and
Josh Bryant, that allowed me better recovery between heavy squat and deadlift
sessions and was the training split I used on my way to my 905 pound
American Record squat. Instead of being confined by the traditional 7 day
calendar week, we would expand the week giving 2 extra recovery days and
adding a weak-point training day.
We identified my upper back and ab strength as the limiting factor in my
squatting and deadlifting ability and wanted to have a separate day dedicated
to improving these areas. Upper back and ab strength, or lack there of, are
probably the most common weak areas for lifters and athletes. This is the case
because so often upper back work is relegated to after main pressing work
when the body and mind are both fatigued. Also since no competitive lifts
directly test the strength of the upper back, its development is often overlooked
but improved upper back strength will improve your performance in all
competitive powerlifts, olympic lifts and strongman events.
Ab work faces a similar feat to upper back work, as it is almost always
relegated to the final part of a training session and I can certainly attest to the
fact, that by the end of a hard session it becomes too easy to justify skipping it.
Skipping ab work, or even not giving it the attention and energy it deserves, will
certainly harm your progress in all lifts and athletic endeavors. Improved ab
strength will make you squat, clean, press and deadlift more, it will also make
you run faster and jump higher, as well as prevent injuries.
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
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Utilizing the 9 Day Work Week template will allow you to focus more energy on
these key areas of your body and improve your recovery. The weekly structure
of the 9 Day Work Week is as follows:
DAY 1
DAY 2
DAY 3
DAY 4
DAY 5
DAY 6
DAY 7
DAY 8
DAY 9
Deadlift
Off
Bench
Back/
Off
Squat
Military
Off
Off
Abs
During your bench day in this plan you will want to do your pressing and
pressing accessory (shoulders, chest, triceps) only and will relegate all back
and bicep work to the following day. Day 7 (Military Press) will be structured as
a normal military press day, featuring your pressing work and accessory pulling
work.
Your Back/Biceps/Abs day can be structured a number of ways but I would
suggest either selecting bentover rows or pullups/chinups as your primary
movement of the day. Your primary movement will follow the traditional
Juggernaut Method structure. Obviously, if you are going to select pullups/
chinups as your primary movement, you need to be rather good at them and be
able to use fairly significant weight.
Whichever you choose as your primary movement, you will choose the other as
your secondary movement, so as to keep balance between your vertical and
horizontal pulling. Your Weak Point training day should be structured as the
following:
1) Bentover Rows or Pullups/ChinupsJuggernaut Method sets and reps
2) Bentover Rows or Pullups/Chinups3 to 5 sets of 8 to 15 reps. Follow one of these 3 week waves:
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
43
!
Option 1
!
!
Week 15x12-15, all at the same weight or changing weights, your choice.
Week 25x10-12
Week 35x8-10
Option 2
!
!
Week 110, 10, 10+, adding weight each set and staying 1-2 reps shy of
failure on the final set
Week 28, 8, 8+
Week 310, 8, 6+
3)Bilateral Curl Variation3 to 5 sets of 5 to 8 reps
4)Unilateral Curl Variation2 to 4 sets of 8 to 20 reps
5) Linear Abdominal Work3 to 5 sets of 8 to 20 reps, my favorite variations here are Ab Wheel,
Decline Situps, Straight Leg Situps and Hanging Leg Raises
Rotational Abdominal Work-3 to 5 sets of 8 to 15 reps each side, my
favorites here are Barbell Russian Twists and Dumbbell or Kettlebell Side
Bends.
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
44
S E T T I N G U P YO U R T RAI N I N G PLAN
The Juggernaut Method is a program designed to be used with the Bench
Press, Squat, Military Press and Deadlift. There are many options you can use
to organize your training phases and waves.
T R A IN IN G 4 DAYS A W E E K
-Monday/Wednesday/Friday/Saturday
-Monday/Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday
-Monday/Tuesday/Thursday/Friday
In these scenarios you will dedicate one day of each week to one of the four
main lifts and its corresponding assistance work. All of these are viable options
and if you like could be adjusted to begin on Sunday, instead of Monday. In that
case, the first split would be Sunday/Tuesday, Thursday/Friday.
T R A IN IN G 3 DAYS A W E E K
This is my preferred method of training, as it allows for more recovery and more
options with conditioning work. When training 3 days a week you can spread
out the training phase over 2 weeks or combine two lifts (Military/Deadlift) into
one training day. So a possible training split could be…
Monday (Bench)/Wednesday (Squat)/Friday (Military/Deadlift)
Or
Monday (Bench)/Wednesday (Squat)/Friday (Military)/ Monday (Deadlift)
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
45
I prefer to train on the second option and while this will cause a wave of training
to last 4 weeks instead of 3, it allows for more recovery which is especially
needed during accumulation phases.
Another option, possibly the best one, is to train every other day. This is a
difficult option for many because your training days are rarely the same, but it
allows for ample recovery and gets each wave done a little faster than just a 3
day a week plan. Training every other day looks like this…
Monday (Bench)/Wednesday (Squat)/Friday (Military)/Sunday (Deadlift)/Tuesday
(Bench)/Thursday (Squat)/…
T R A IN IN G 2 DAYS A W E E K
Training 2 Days a week is another good option and one that I have had athletes
experience great gains with. When training 2 days per week you should put 2
full days between training sessions. So possible splits would be…
-Sunday/Wednesday
-Monday/Thursday
-Tuesday/Friday
-Wednesday/Saturday
When setting up the 2 day a week training plan the athlete will perform 2 major
lifts each day, but will only adhere to the Juggernaut Method set/rep/
percentage scheme for the days first lift. They will also take 2 weeks to perform
each phase of the training wave. An athlete training on a Monday/Thursday
training schedule would use the following split…
Week 1
Monday
Thursday
Bench Press-Juggernaut Method
Squat-Juggernaut Method
Deadlift-5/3/1, minimum reps
Military-5/3/1, minimum reps
Assistance Work
Assistance Work
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
46
Week 2
Monday
Thursday
Deadlift-Juggernaut Method
Military-Juggernaut Method
Bench Press-5/3/1 minimum reps
Squat-5/3/1, minimum reps
Assistance Work
Assistance Work
This 2 day a week plan utilizes the Juggernaut Method for your main lift of the
day and Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 for the secondary lift. Notice that 5/3/1 will be
performed for only the minimum prescribed reps each day, the last set is not
taken to near failure as he discusses in his book. Athletes training two days a
week should not need to deload at the end of each wave.
PUTTING I T AL L TOGE THER
Sample Templates
There are lots of factors to consider when putting together your training
template, particularly when you have speed/jumping work, lifting and
conditioning to balance. Here I will show you options to incorporate all 3
phases of your training into templates where you lift 4, 3, or 2 days per week.
L IF T IN G 4 DAYS P E R W E E K
This is the most straightforward option…
DAY 1
DAY 2
DAY 3
DAY 4
DAY 5
DAY 6
DAY 7
Bench
Off
Squat
Off
Military
Deadlift
Off
Now let’s add some speed and power work to this split…
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
47
DAY 1
DAY 2
DAY 3
DAY 4
DAY 5
DAY 6
DAY 7
MB
Off
Jumps
Off
MB
Sprints
Off
Throws
Deadlifts
Throws
Squats
Bench
Military
How about conditioning…
DAY 1
DAY 2
DAY 3
DAY 4
DAY 5
DAY 6
DAY 7
Bench
Off
Squat
Off
Military
Deadlift
Off
Tempo
Alactic
Tempo
Alactic
Runs
Capacity
Runs
Capacity
L IF T IN G 3 DAYS P E R W E E K
Lifting 3 Days per week is a great option for athletes who need to incorporate
skill training (i.e. Practice), speed/power work and conditioning into their
training. When lifting 3 days per week, each training phase will be spread out
over 9 days. If you are just lifting 3 days/week, you should do that on either
Mon/Wed/Fri/Mon or Tues/Thurs/Sat/Tues. Another option is every other day, so
Monday/Wednesday/Friday/Sunday/Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday.
Adding speed/power work to a 3 day lifting split…
DAY 1
DAY 2
DAY 3
DAY 4
DAY 5
DAY 6
DAY 7
MB
Off
Jumps
Off
MB
Off
Off
Throws
Bench
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
Squat
Throws
Military
48
DAY 8
DAY 9
DAY 10
DAY 1 1
DAY 1 2
DAY 1 3
DAY 1 4
Sprints
Off
MB
Off
Jumps
Off
Off
Deadlift
Throws
Squat
Bench
When lifting 3 days/week, you can also combine two core lifts into one training
day. When doing this, I advocate that you only choose one assistance exercise
for each upper body and lower body to perform on that day…
DAY 1
DAY 2
DAY 3
DAY 4
DAY 5
DAY 6
DAY 7
MB
Off
Jumps
Off
MB
Off
Off
Throws
Squat
Throws
Bench
Sprints
Military
Deadlift
Adding a conditioning element…
DAY 1
DAY 2
DAY 3
DAY 4
DAY 5
DAY 6
DAY 7
Bench
Off
Squat
Off
Military
Deadlift
Off
Tempo Runs
Alactic
Tempo Runs
Alactic
Capacity
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
Capcity
49
Putting it all together…
DAY 1
DAY 2
DAY 3
DAY 4
DAY 5
DAY 6
DAY 7
MB Throws
Off
Jumps
Off
MB
Off
Off
Bench
Squat
Throws
Tempo Runs
Alactic
Military
Capacity
Tempo
Runs
DAY 8
DAY 9
DAY 10
DAY 11
Sprints
Off
MB Throws
Off
DAY 1 2 DAY 1 3 DAY 1 4
Jumps
Deadlift
Bench
Squat
Alactic
Tempo Runs
Alactic
Capacity
Off
Off
Capacity
L IF T IN G 2 DAYS P E R W E E K
Lifting 2 days/week is a great option for athletes with higher GPP who need to
focus more of their energy on skill development in their sport. If you have
reached a point of diminishing returns with your physical gains, it is definitely
time for you to put less energy towards the weight room and more towards
practicing the skill of your sport. I reached this point in my track and field
career. I had gained enough strength to where adding 10 pounds to my bench
wasn’t going to make the shot go any further, only technical improvements
would yield those positive results.
When training only 2 days per week I advocate using 5/3/1 for the minimum
prescribed reps on your main accessory lift of the day. For this main accessory
movement I like to use a variation of one of your other foundation movements.
This movement should be for the opposite body part that your main lift was and
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
50
should be for the foundation movement that you will do the following week. So
if you are benching and squatting in week 1, you will perform deadlift and
military variations as your main accessory movements. When lifting only 2 days/
week I suggest you take 2 full days between training sessions, Monday/
Thursday is a great option, and do not deload unless you are feeling run down.
Since that was pretty cryptic to understand, hopefully this table will help…
DAY 1
DAY 2
DAY 3
DAY 4
DAY 5
DAY 6
DAY 7
Bench
Off
Off
Squat-
Off
Off
Off
PressJuggernaut
Juggernaut
Method
Method
Incline
Deadlift
Bench-5/3/
Standing
1 minimum
on
reps
Blocks-5/3/
1 minimum
reps
DAY 8
DAY 9
DAY 1 0
DAY 1 1
DAY 1 2
DAY 1 3
DAY 1 4
Military-
Off
Off
Deadlift-
Off
Off
Off
Juggernaut
Method
Juggernaut
Method
Safety
Two Board
Squat Bar
Press-5/3/1
Squats-5/3/
minimum
1 minimum
reps
reps
There are numerous options when adding speed/power work and conditioning
to your 2 day lifting template, too many to discuss here. Just remember that
when including speed/power work into your training, that it must be performed
with a fresh CNS, so put it prior to your lifting or 48 hours after your last CNS
intensive lifting session.
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
51
AS S I S TA N CE WO RK
So now you know what the plan is for the big lifts, you probably want to do
some assistance work. Assistance work needs to be just that, assistance, don’t
let your assistance work interfere with your big lifts. Here is what Jim Wendler
lists as the four main tasks of assistance work in 5/3/1:
-Strengthen Weak areas of the body
!
-Compliment and help increase the four basic lifts
!
-Provide balance and symmetry to your body and training
!
-Build Muscle Mass
The idea of big compound movements should still apply to your assistance
work. Dips, chinups, GHRs or good mornings and lunges will do a lot more for
your lifts and body than dozens of isolation exercises, and it will do them in a
more efficient manner.
A S SISTA N C E WO R K # 1 : W H AT I AC T UALLY D O
Monday
1) Bench Press-Whatever Phase and Wave I am on
2) Horizontal Pulling (DB Rows or Chest Supported Rows)-5x10-15
3) Dips-3xAMAP
4) Ab Wheel-3-5x15-20
5) Upper Body Conditioning, I’ll get into this in a few sections
Wednesday
1) Jumping, This will be covered later too
2) Squat-Whatever Phase and Wave I am on
3) GHR-3x10-20
4) Back Extensions-3x10-20
5) Decline Situps-3-5x10-20
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
52
Friday
1) Military Press-Whatever Phase and Wave I am on
2) Chinups-5-10 sets of 5-10 reps
3) Dips-I use several different options here, but they usually end up being
something to the effect of 5x10-20 with some weighted sets
4) Upper Body Conditioning
Saturday
1) Jumping
2) Deadlift-Whatever Phase and Wave I am on
3) Hamstring/Low Back Movement-This is either GHRs or sometimes SSB
4) Squats for 3-5 sets of 5-10 reps
5) Walking Lunges-3 to 5 sets of 12-20 steps
6) Side Bends-3 to 5 sets of 15-20 reps
A S SISTA N C E WO R K # 2 : W E S T S I D E F O R SK I NNY BASTARD S
Westside for Skinny Bastards is a tremendously popular program designed by
Joe Defranco. Using the assistance template from this program, which utilizes
lots of supersets, would be an excellent option for athletes who need to gain
muscle mass and improve their work capacity. The inclusion of unilateral work
into this assistance template also makes it a solid option for athletes.
For this template you will perform whatever sets and reps you have for the
current wave/phase on your main exercise and then perform the following
accessory work.
Bench Day
1a) Vertical Pulling for 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps
1b) Upper Back for 3-4 sets of 12-15 reps
2) Medial Delt for 4 sets of 8-12 reps
3a) Arms (Bicep or Tricep) for 3 sets of 8-10 reps
3b) Traps for 3 sets of 12-20 reps
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
53
Squat Day
1) Unilateral Exercise for 2-3 sets of 8-10 reps
2) Hip Extension Exercise for 3 sets of 8-15 reps
3) Weighted Abdominals for 4 sets of 10-15 reps
Military Day
1) Supplemental Pressing for 2 sets of maximum reps, using a weight you
can perform 15-20 reps with on the first set
2a) Horizontal Pulling for 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps
2b) Rear Delts for 3-4 sets of 10-20 reps
3) Traps for 3-4 sets of 8-15 reps
4) Elbow Flexor exercise for 3-4 sets of 8-15 reps
Deadlift Day
1) Unilateral Movement for 3 sets of 6-12 reps
2) Hamstring Posterior Chain Movement for 3 sets of 8-12 reps
3) Bodyweight Abdominal Circuit
A S SISTA N C E WO R K # 3 : P E R I O D I Z AT I O N BI BLE
This comes from a great article by Dave Tate.
Bench Day
1) Shoulders or Chest-5 sets of 10-20 reps (DB Bench, DB Incline, DB
Military, Incline press, Dips, Pushups)
2) Lats or Upper Back-5 sets of 10-20 reps (DB Rows, Bent Over Rows,
T-bar Rows, Lat Pulldowns, Face Pulls, Shrugs)
3) Triceps-5 Sets of 10-20 reps (Triceps Pushdowns or Triceps
Extensions)
Squat Day
1) Low Back-5 Sets of 10-20 reps (Reverse Hyper, Back Raise, Good
Morning)
2) Quads-5 Sets of 10-20 reps (Leg Press, Lunges, Hack Squats)
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
54
3) Abs-5 Sets of 10-20 reps (Sit Ups, Hanging Leg Raises, Ab Wheel, DB
Side Bend)
Military Day
1) Shoulders or Chest-5 sets of 10-20 reps (DB Bench, DB Incline, DB
Military, Incline press, Dips, Pushups)
2) Lats or Upper Back-5 sets of 10-20 reps (DB Rows, Bent Over Rows,
T-bar Rows, Lat Pulldowns, Face Pulls, Shrugs)
3) Triceps-5 Sets of 10-20 reps (Triceps Pushdowns or Triceps
Extensions)
Deadlift Day
1) Hamstrings-5 sets of 10-20 reps (Leg Curls, GHRs)
2) Quads-5 Sets of 10-20 reps (Leg Press, Lunges, Hack Squats)
4) Abs-5 Sets of 10-20 reps (Sit Ups, Hanging Leg Raises, Ab Wheel, DB
Side Bend)
ACCESS ORY WOR K # 4 : T HE T R IUMV IRATE
This is a very simple, yet effective option, that will limit you to 3 exercises each
day, including your main lift. When you only have 3 exercises to get your work
done, you need to choose them wisely, so big compound assistance exercises
are your best bet. Always consider training economy and pick exercises that
you know produce results for YOU.
Bench Day
1) Bench Press-Juggernaut Method
2) Dumbbell Bench Variation for 5 sets of 10-15 reps
3) Horizontal Row Variation for 5 sets of 10-15
Squat Day
1) Squat-Juggernaut Method
2) GHR for 5 sets of 10-20
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
55
3) Weighted Decline Situps for 5 sets of 10-20
Military Day
1) Military-Juggernaut Method
2) Dips for 5 sets of 5-20
3) Chinups for 5 sets of 5-20
Deadlift Day
1) Deadlift-Juggernaut Method
2) Walking Lunges for 5 sets of 8-20 steps
3) Ab Wheel for 5 sets of 10-20
ACCESS ORY WOR K # 5 : 5 /3 /1 AS ASSI STANCE
Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 program has yielded tremendous results for many lifters
and athletes. 5/3/1 can also be utilized for assistance work with great
effectiveness. Here is how I would implement 5/3/1 into the assistance work
with the Juggernaut Method.
Bench Day
1) Bench Press-Juggernaut Method
2) Chinups-5/3/1 reps, when utilizing 5/3/1 for upper body accessory lifts
you can/should take your final set to near failure. Chinups can also be
replaced by bentover rows here, this would be a wise decision if you are
not good at chinups.
3) Dips for 3-5 sets of 5-20 reps
Squat Day
1) Squat-Juggernaut Method
2) Deadlifts standing on blocks-5/3/1 reps, when using 5/3/1 for lower
body assistance lifts, I advocate that only the prescribed reps are done.
3) Unilateral Lower Body work for 3 sets of 6-15 reps
4) Weighted Ab Work
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
56
Military Day
1) Military-Juggernaut Method
2) Dips-5/3/1, with last set taken to near failure
3) Chinups for 5 sets of 5-20
Deadlift Day
1) Deadlift-Juggernaut Method
2) Safety Bar Squat or Front Squat-5/3/1 for minimum prescribed reps
3) Weighted Ab Work
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
57
WEI GH TE D D IPS A N D C H I N U PS
Dips and chinups are two powerful compound movements that should be
included in any lifter’s program. Weighted dips have been a staple of big
bencher’s programs since the great Pat Casey reportedly did 380 pounds for a
single dip, at a bodyweight of 300 pounds, this tricep strength certainly fueled
him to be the 1st 600 pound bench presser in history. Konstantin
Konstantinovs, modern day deadlift hero, has posted videos performing
pullups/chinups with nearly 100 pounds strapped to his near 300 pound frame,
this back strength is certainly a catalyst to his 900+ pound deadlifts and 580
pound closegrip bench.
Progressing your weight use on dips and chinups can be challenging. The first
issue is finding a max in these exercises. I suggest you use your bodyweight
plus the weight you use as your max, so someone who weighs 200 pounds and
can perform a dip with 100 pounds, would base their percentages off of 300
pounds. This method will cause many people to have to deal with weights that
are less than your bodyweight, in this event, I would just simply use your
bodyweight for these reps.
The other option is to just simply use the weight you can do for 1 rep as your
max, the only reason I’m not particularly fond of this method is that unless you
are remarkably strong in these movements, you will be using very small jumps
between sets; but I do recommend this method for heavier athletes. Let’s look
at a 16 week progression for weighted dips and/or chinups/pullups:
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
58
WAV E
ACCUMUL ATI ON
I N T EN SI FI CATI O N
R EA LI Z ATI O N
10s
50/60/70%x12+
55/65/75%x10+
60x12, 70x10, 80x8+
8s
55/65/75%x10+
60/70/80%x8+
65x10, 75x8, 85x5+
5s
60/70/80%x8+
65/75/85%x5+
70x8, 80x5, 90x3+
3s
65/75/85%x5+
70/80/90%x3+
75x5, 85x3, 95x1+
During the accumulation and intensification weeks, perform the listed reps for
the first 2 percentages and for the final set you can go beyond those reps. After
each realization week, take a deload week in which you perform 2-3 sets of
5-10 reps with only your bodyweight. To move your max up from wave to wave,
simply increase your working max by 5 to 10 pounds, but I would advise not
going over a 10% increase each wave.
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
59
I NC O R P O RATIN G S PE E D AN D POW ER WO RK
As a former elite level shot putter and the current owner of Juggernaut Training
Systems, where I train hundreds of athletes each year, development of speed
and jumping ability is a priority of mine. Jumping, sprinting, medicine ball
throws and the Olympic lifts along with their variations are the best ways to
develop speed and high rate of force development and all four of these can
easily be integrated into the Juggernaut Method.
J U MP IN G
Jumping exercises can be done 1-2x per week and should be performed prior
to your squat or deadlift training. When training your jumping 2x per week I
prefer to select two different types of jumps, my preferred combination is
weighted and unweighted. You may also introduce other variables into this such
as seated jumps, jumps out of foam, and the manner in which the jumps are
weighted (vest, holding dumbbells, ankle weights). Only more qualified athletes
need to concern themselves with these other variations, so if you can only jump
on a 30” box, don’t worry about seated box jumps out of foam while holding
dumbbells and wearing ankle weights, got it?
As far as jumping volume is concerned adhere to Prilepin’s chart to manage
your jumping volume.
P ER CEN T
R EP S PE R S ET
O PT I MA L REP S
TOTA L R EP R A NG E
70-80
3-6
18
12-24
80-90
2-4
15
10-20
90+
1-2
4
10
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
60
Once you have found your max in a given jumping exercise you can now figure
out how many jumps to perform each training session and what heights to
perform them at. So if an athlete has a standing box jump max of 40 inches, a
75% jump would be 30 inches, 80% would be 32 inches and 85% would be 34
inches. I do not advise performing jumps under the 70% range for an athlete
with any appreciable qualification (except during a deload week) as it is difficult
to exert maximal force when performing such low jumps.
Lets take a look at an example phase and wave of jumping for an athlete with a
40” standing box jump and 30” weighted box jump:
P HA S E
DAY 1- STANDI N G B OX JU M P
DAY 2 -W EI GHT ED B OX JU M P
Accumulation
30” (75%) x6 sets of 3 jumps
22.5” (75%) x4 sets of 3 jumps
Intensification
34” (85%) x5 sets of 3 jumps
25.5” (85%) x5 sets of 2 jumps
Realization
38” (95%) x4 sets of 2 jumps
28.5” (95%) x5 sets of 1 jump
I try to keep the volume of jumping on the first day right in the optimal range as
described by Prilepin, while the volume of the 2 nd day will be about 60% of the
first day. Sets and reps can vary to make up this volume, but I do not advise
having more than 5 jumps per set. Make sure that complete recovery is
achieved between sets.
Athlete’s with greater jumping capabilities should err on the lower side of the
volume range as they do not need as much work to improve their abilities. I
have had the opportunity to train alongside Dwain Chambers, 2010 World
Indoor Champion in the 60m dash, and can personally attest that Dwain would
not perform more than 5 jumps total in a workout, though these jumps would
go up 68” in height.
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
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Here is a 16 week jumping progression that you can use with your athletes:
WAV E
E XE RCI SE
ACCUMU LAT I ON
I N TE N SI FI CAT IO N
R EA LI Z AT I ON
10s
Weighted Box
6x3 at 75%
5x2 at 85%
4x1 Up to a
Jumps
8s
Max
Box Jumps
6x3 at 75%
5x2 at 85%
4x1 Up to a
Max
5s
Depth Jumps
2x5 from 12”
2x4 from 18”
2x3 from 24”
3s
Hurdle Hops
5x5
4x4
3x3
SP R IN T IN G
The inclusion of sprinting into your program is a must for any athlete or person
trying to raise their rate of force development or improve their body
composition. If you wish to include sprints in your program, I suggest that they
replace one day of jumping per week. It is possible to jump and sprint 2x per
week each, but will require you to reduce the volume of your assistance work
and monitor your recovery closely.
The focus of your sprint training needs to be QUALITY not quantity. Sprint
training for the non-track athlete should consist of sprints between 10-50m and
should not exceed 200m of total volume per session. Complete recovery is
necessary between all repetitions, a good rule of thumb to follow when looking
at recovery times between sprints is to rest for 30 seconds for every 10m of
sprinting performed. An athlete with higher qualifications (i.e. A faster athlete)
will need to lengthen their rest periods, as their sprinting is a more CNS taxing
endeavor and conversely an athlete with lower GPP (i.e. An out of shape
athlete) will need to lengthen their rest periods, as their sprinting is a more
aerobically taxing endeavor.
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
62
Resisted sprints (sprinting while pulling a sled, none of this parachute BS) is a
hotly debated topic in the speed development community. I had long adhered to
the idea that adding too much weight to the sled (>15% of athlete’s
bodyweight) would hinder their speed development, but I have recently changed
my perspective here. In the spring of 2010 I witnessed a top European sprinter
(PR of 20.38 in the 200m) performing sprints with up to 105 pounds (70 pounds
of weight + 35 pound sled) resisting him. Mind you this athlete weighed no
more than 190 pounds. After speaking with his coach, he explained to me that
he has found these heavily weighted sprints would teach his athlete’s to have a
longer and greater force application during their start phase of their races. He
and I agreed that these heavily weighted sprints could definitely have their place
early in an athlete’s annual plan. While I feel that heavily weighted sprints have
their place in a training plan, it is extremely important to not allow the weight of
your athlete’s sled to negatively impact mechanics.
Here is a look at how I would set up the speed development plan for a big skill
player (Linebacker or tight end) over the course of the entire Juggernaut
Method:
WAV E
10s
8s
5s
3s
ACCU MUL ATIO N
I N TE NS IF ICATI ON
R EA LI Z AT IO N
Hill Sprints-10x10
Hill Sprints-3x6x30yds
Hill
yds, 10x20 yds,
10x20 yds
Sled
Sprints-4x4x30yds
Sled Sprints-4x4x30yds
Sprints-3x6x30yds
Sled
Sprints-5x3x30yds
Sprints-3x6x30yds
Sprints-3x6x30yds
Sprints-3x6x30yds
Flying
Flying
Flying
Sprints-3x3x20+10
Sprints-2x3x20+15yds
Sprints-1x3x20+20
yds
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
yds
63
Flying sprints are performed
by performing a smooth
buildup for the prescribed
distance and the sprinting full
speed for the next section.
These are extremely taxing to
the CNS and body, so they
must be used sparingly, even
though the training effect they
provide is tremendous.
T H R OW IN G
Throwers (Shot, Discus,
Hammer, Javelin) are some of
the World’s most powerful
athletes. I’m not just saying
that because I’m biased since
that is my athletic
background, throwers are
huge and post remarkable
results in sprinting and
jumping, and to no surprise,
the basis of their training is
throwing. Throwing their
implements, as well as
Medicine ball throws are very simple to learn, so you
don’t have to waste much time learning the technical
skills of a sport, you can simply begin building the
explosive power needed to succeed in your endeavor
of choice.
medicine balls, puds and
other various weights helps
them develop tremendous
explosive power through a number of planes of motion. Throwing will help you
build explosive strength with through uninhibited triple extension in multiple
directions.
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Traditional Olympic lifts only develop power in the vertical plane, while medicine
ball work can be done in horizontal, vertical and rotational manners. Medicine
ball throws allow the athlete to achieve higher velocities than Olympic lifts and
are very simple to learn. Medicine ball throws will teach athletes to transfer
power from the ground up, the power of the throws must be created from the
lower body through the ground up and transferred through the midsection into
the arms and through the implement.
When managing the intensity and volume of throws, only volume can be
manipulated. The throws must always be done at maximum intensity (i.e.
throwing as far as possible) to get the desired training effect. Obviously the
weight of the implement being thrown can be manipulated to address different
areas on the force/velocity curve and depending on the weight of the implement
and the type of throw being used, weighted throws are a great option for
special strength exercises.
Because the intensity of the throws are always >90% effort, you need to reduce
the volume of throws from week to week. This doesn’t need to be done in any
complex manner, something simple like 10 throws in Week 1, 8 throws in Week
2 and 6 throws in Week 3 will work fine. Learn more about medicine ball throws
including video demonstrations of all our favorite throws here.
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I NC O R P O RATIN G O LY MPI C LI FT I N G
Olympic lifting is a hotly debated topic in the training community, but it’s
benefits are obvious. The Olympic lifts, WHEN BEING PERFORMED BY
SOMEONE WITH COMPETENT TECHNIQUE, is a great developer of power and
teaches an athlete to absorb force well. While I do not include them in my own
training, there are athletes who I work with that are required to perform them
during their competitive season by their coaches, and for such athletes, I
believe I have an excellent way of incorporating the Olympic lifts into their
training without being too hard on their joints, or having them place too much
time on technical development, while still reaping the exercises’ benefits.
The Olympic lifts can be incorporated into your training twice per week, the first
day (Pull Day) will be done as your main accessory lift on your squat day, and
the second day (Speed Day) will be done prior to your deadlift training.
The Pull Day will focus on the development on pulling strength/speed by
utilizing Olympic pull variations (Snatch and Clean Pull) from various heights
(standing on blocks, pulls from below the knee, pulls from the thigh, pulls from
the floor, etc). Once the athlete has competed their squatting for the day, they
will perform one of these pulling variations up to a 2-5rm. I suggest rotating the
pulling variation that is used on a weekly basis, though I do not advocate
changing between snatch and clean pull variations within one training wave—
rather change the heights you are pulling from.
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An example training wave for the pull day would be as follows…
8 S WAVE
Squat
ACCUMU LAT IO N I N TE N SI FI CATI O N
Squat 65%x5x8+
R EA LI Z ATI O N
Squat 60%x3,
Squat 50%x5,
67.5%x3,
60%x3, 70%x2,
72.5%x3x8+
75%x1,
80%xAMAP
Pull Variation
Accessory
Clean Pull with
Clean Pull
Clean Pull from
bar on 6” Blocks
standing on 3”
floor to 3rm
to 3rm
Blocks to 3rm
GHR-3xAMAP-2
GHR-3xAMAP-2
GHR-3xAMAP-2
The speed day will focus on moving submaximal weights at maximal velocity
and perfecting technique. The speed day will be done prior to your deadlift
training and will also serve to prime your CNS for explosive pulls.
The speed day is essentially the dynamic method, but applied to Olympic lifts.
Because of the fast nature of the Olympic lifts, a higher percentage (60-80%)
can be used when compared to the powerlifts (40-60%). It is crucial that short
rest periods are used (45-60 seconds). Here is what a training wave would look
like for the speed day…
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5 S WAVE
Olympic Lift
ACCUMU LAT IO N I N TE N SI FI CAT IO N
R EA LI ZATI ON
Snatch 12x2 at Snatch 9x2 at 70%
Snatch 6x2 at
60%
Deadlift
80%
Deadlift
Deadlift 65%x2,
Deadlift 50%x5,
70%x6x5+
72.5%x2,
60%x3, 70%x2,
77.5%x4x5+
75%x1, 80%x1,
85%xAMAP
Accessory
Walking Lunges
Walking Lunges
Walking Lunges
3x12 steps
3x12 steps
3x12 steps
There are many great options to develop speed and explosive power in athletes
and lifters. Jumping, sprinting, throwing and Olympic lifts can all have their
place in your training. With that being said, do not try to utilize all of these
means within the same training wave or for the length of the program for that
matter. I would choose 2 options and perform them for 4 consecutive waves.
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C OND I T IO N IN G
Romulo Barral, 7x World Jiu Jitsu Campion,
knows that there is more to conditioning
than simply going until you puke.
Conditioning is a big word that
encompasses numerous ideas. It is impossible to say that someone is well
conditioned, without prefacing what the purpose of their conditioning is. It is
easy to assume that a marathon runner is better conditioned than a powerlifter,
but while the powerlifter isn’t conditioned to do what the marathon runner,
neither is the marathon runner conditioned to endure the training of the
powerlifter. Runners, fighters, football players and lifters can all be well
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
69
conditioned and being well conditioned means something different to each one
of those athletes; it is imperative to understand the demands of your activities
and prepare yourself accordingly for them.
Few team sports impose a significant lactic load on their participants, yet there
are numerous teams and athletes who put themselves under tremendous lactic
workloads to prepare for competition. Football, basketball, lacrosse, rugby,
soccer, volleyball and water polo are all primarily alactic-aerobic activities,
meaning that they have short burst of intense activities interspersed by periods
of lower intensity activity, active rest or passive rest. Despite this fact, athletes
in these sports are always doing gassers, suicides or misusing great tools like
the sled/prowler by doing long duration high intensity pushes or taking
insufficient rest periods.
Coaches and athletes alike, must understand that the greater an athlete
becomes at lactic activities, the worse they will become at alactic activities.
There is a reason that Usain Bolt isn’t also the world’s best 800m runner and
that is the same reason that David Rudisha (800m World Record holder) isn’t
the best 100m runner— because one cannot develop competing energy
systems to maximal levels.
Every time you or your athletes runs a gasser,
TH E QUE S TI ON BE IN G
AS KED T HO UG H IS
INCOMP LE TE , I T
MUS T B E P RE DI CAT E D
O N: BE TTE R
CO ND ITI ON E D TO D O
W H AT?
does countless burpees or pushes the Prowler
until your legs are wobbly and you are vomiting,
you aren’t developing mental toughness or getting
in shape, you are ruining your short and long term
abilities to develop speed, maximal strength and
explosive power.
So, if you aren’t going to smash your CNS and
body with highly challenging lactic threshold
training, how will you condition? Alactic capacity
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
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and aerobic capacity are the answer. Alactic capacity is the ability to repeat
high level outputs with incomplete rest periods, to simplify that idea, if you have
a 42” box jump max, alactic capacity would be your ability to perform 36” box
jumps repeatedly with 10-30 seconds between each jump.
It is imperative that before one aims to develop alactic capacity, they first focus
on developing alactic power, because without first having power than it is
irrelevant what they can maintain rep after rep. If you have a running back who
runs a 5.3 40, it doesn’t matter how many times he can repeat that effort on
short rests, because he will be watching the game from the sidelines.
Developing alactic capacity is a relatively simple process, each week you either
need to do more work per set with the same rest periods, do more sets of the
same amount of work on the same rest periods, or do the same amount of work
and set on shorter rest periods. I would suggest doing your alactic capacity
work after your lower body training days, or if you perform a full body template
(2-3 days/week) you could do it after every session.
Here is a general template for developing alactic capacity over the 16 week
course of The Juggernaut Method (deload weeks aren’t listed because during
those weeks you should only perform aerobic capacity work). The exercises are
fairly interchangeable, however they must be something explosive in nature:
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
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WAVE
S ES S ION 1
SESS IO N 2
SESS IO N 3
10s Accumulation
1-KB Squat
1-Box Jumps-10
1-Split Jumps-10
Jumps-10 sets of 4
jumps, 30 seconds
sets of 4 jumps, 30
seconds between
sets of 4 jumps, 30
seconds between
between sets
sets
sets
2-Prowler
2-Prowler
2-15 yd
Explosions-10x4,
Sprints-10x10yds,
Shuttles-10x1 rep,
30 seconds
30 seconds
30 seconds
3-Sledge Hammer
3-Arm over Arm
3-Burpee +
Strikes-10x4, 30
Sled Pulls-10x4, 30
Pullup-10x4, 30
seconds
seconds
seconds
1-KB Squat
1-Box Jumps-10
1-Split Jumps-10
Jumps-10 sets of 5
jumps, 30 seconds
sets of 5 jumps, 30
seconds between
sets of 5 jumps, 30
seconds between
between sets
sets
sets
2-Prowler
2-Prowler
2-20 yd
Explosions-10x5,
Sprints-10x15yds,
Shuttles-10x1 rep,
30 seconds
30 seconds
30 seconds
3-Sledge Hammer
3-Arm over Arm
3-Burpee +
Strikes-10x5, 30
Sled Pulls-10x5, 30
Pullup-10x5, 30
seconds
seconds
seconds
1-KB Squat
1-Box Jumps-10
1-Split Jumps-10
Jumps-10 sets of
sets of 6 jumps,
sets of 6 jumps,
6 jumps, 30
30 seconds
30 seconds
seconds between
between sets
between sets
sets
2-Prowler
2-25 yd
2-Prowler
Sprints-10x20yds
Shuttles-10x1
Explosions-10x6,
, 30 seconds
rep, 30 seconds
30 seconds
3-Arm over Arm
3-Burpee +
3-Sledge Hammer
Sled Pulls-10x6,
Pullup-10x6, 30
Strikes-10x6, 30
30 seconds
seconds
10s Intensification
10s Realization
seconds
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WAVE
S ES S ION 1
SESS IO N 2
SESS IO N 3
8s Accumulation
1-KB Squat
1-Box Jumps-10
1-Split Jumps-10
Jumps-10 sets of 4
jumps, 25 seconds
sets of 4 jumps, 25
seconds between
sets of 4 jumps, 25
seconds between
between sets
sets
sets
2-Prowler
2-Prowler
2-15 yd
Explosions-10x4,
Sprints-10x10yds,
Shuttles-10x1 rep,
25 seconds
25 seconds
25 seconds
3-Sledge Hammer
3-Arm over Arm
3-Burpee +
Strikes-10x4, 25
Sled Pulls-10x4, 25
Pullup-10x4, 25
seconds
seconds
seconds
1-KB Squat
1-Box Jumps-10
1-Split Jumps-10
Jumps-10 sets of 5
jumps, 25 seconds
sets of 5 jumps, 25
seconds between
sets of 5 jumps, 25
seconds between
between sets
sets
sets
2-Prowler
2-Prowler
2-20 yd
Explosions-10x5,
Sprints-10x15yds,
Shuttles-10x1 rep,
25 seconds
25 seconds
25 seconds
3-Sledge Hammer
3-Arm over Arm
3-Burpee +
Strikes-10x5, 25
Sled Pulls-10x5, 25
Pullup-10x5, 25
seconds
seconds
seconds
1-KB Squat
1-Box Jumps-10
1-Split Jumps-10
Jumps-10 sets of 6
jumps, 25 seconds
sets of 6 jumps, 30
seconds between
sets of 6 jumps, 25
seconds between
between sets
sets
sets
2-Prowler
2-Prowler
2-25 yd
Explosions-10x6,
Sprints-10x20yds,
Shuttles-10x1 rep,
25 seconds
30 seconds
25 seconds
3-Sledge Hammer
3-Arm over Arm
3-Burpee +
Strikes-10x6, 25
Sled Pulls-10x6, 25
Pullup-10x6, 25
seconds
seconds
seconds
8s Intensification
8s Realization
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WAVE
S ES S ION 1
SESS IO N 2
SESS IO N 3
5s Accumulation
1-KB Squat
1-Box Jumps-10
1-Split Jumps-10
Jumps-10 sets of 4
jumps, 20 seconds
sets of 4 jumps, 20
seconds between
sets of 4 jumps, 20
seconds between
between sets
sets
sets
2-Prowler
2-Prowler
2-15 yd
Explosions-10x4,
Sprints-10x10yds,
Shuttles-10x1 rep,
20 seconds
20 seconds
20 seconds
3-Sledge Hammer
3-Arm over Arm
3-Burpee +
Strikes-10x4, 20
Sled Pulls-10x4, 20
Pullup-10x4, 20
seconds
seconds
seconds
1-KB Squat
1-Box Jumps-10
1-Split Jumps-10
Jumps-10 sets of 5
jumps, 20 seconds
sets of 5 jumps, 20
seconds between
sets of 5 jumps, 20
seconds between
between sets
sets
sets
2-Prowler
2-Prowler
2-20 yd
Explosions-10x5,
Sprints-10x15yds,
Shuttles-10x1 rep,
20 seconds
20 seconds
20 seconds
3-Sledge Hammer
3-Arm over Arm
3-Burpee +
Strikes-10x5, 20
Sled Pulls-10x5, 20
Pullup-10x5, 20
seconds
seconds
seconds
1-KB Squat
1-Box Jumps-10
1-Split Jumps-10
Jumps-10 sets of 6
jumps, 20 seconds
sets of 6 jumps, 20
seconds between
sets of 6 jumps, 20
seconds between
between sets
sets
sets
2-Prowler
2-Prowler
2-25 yd
Explosions-10x6,
Sprints-10x20yds,
Shuttles-10x1 rep,
20 seconds
20 seconds
20 seconds
3-Sledge Hammer
3-Arm over Arm
3-Burpee +
Strikes-10x6, 20
Sled Pulls-10x6, 20
Pullup-10x6, 20
seconds
seconds
seconds
5s Intensification
5s Realization
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WAVE
S ES S ION 1
SESS IO N 2
SESS IO N 3
3s Accumulation
1-KB Squat
1-Box Jumps-10
1-Split Jumps-10
Jumps-10 sets of 4
jumps, 15 seconds
sets of 4 jumps, 15
seconds between
sets of 4 jumps, 15
seconds between
between sets
sets
sets
2-Prowler
2-Prowler
2-15 yd
Explosions-10x4,
Sprints-10x10yds,
Shuttles-10x1 rep,
15 seconds
15 seconds
15 seconds
3-Sledge Hammer
3-Arm over Arm
3-Burpee +
Strikes-10x4, 15
Sled Pulls-10x4, 15
Pullup-10x4, 15
seconds
seconds
seconds
1-KB Squat
1-Box Jumps-10
1-Split Jumps-10
Jumps-10 sets of 5
jumps, 15 seconds
sets of 5 jumps, 15
seconds between
sets of 5 jumps, 15
seconds between
between sets
sets
sets
2-Prowler
2-Prowler
2-20 yd
Explosions-10x5,
Sprints-10x15yds,
Shuttles-10x1 rep,
15 seconds
15 seconds
15 seconds
3-Sledge Hammer
3-Arm over Arm
3-Burpee +
Strikes-10x5, 15
Sled Pulls-10x5, 15
Pullup-10x5, 15
seconds
seconds
seconds
1-KB Squat
1-Box Jumps-10
1-Split Jumps-10
Jumps-10 sets of 6
jumps, 15 seconds
sets of 6 jumps, 15
seconds between
sets of 6 jumps, 15
seconds between
between sets
sets
sets
2-Prowler
2-Prowler
2-25 yd
Explosions-10x6,
Sprints-10x20yds,
Shuttles-10x1 rep,
15 seconds
15 seconds
15 seconds
3-Sledge Hammer
3-Arm over Arm
3-Burpee +
Strikes-10x6, 15
Sled Pulls-10x6, 15
Pullup-10x6, 15
seconds
seconds
seconds
3s Intensification
3s Realization
This will be a great progression for the general population to develop alactic
capacity. Remember that these exercises aren’t set in stone, you can choose
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virtually anything you like, it just must allow you to produce a significant enough
power output.
The development of alactic capacity in regards to the demands of different
sports, is a more complex issue, especially when you begin to include SPP
drills. I have included my article, Conditioning for Football, which will lay out my
ideas for alactic capacity development for football players and should allow you
to extrapolate ideas out for whatever your sporting endeavor of choice is.
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76
C OND I T IO N IN G
F O R FO OTBA L L
Conditioning tests are a
standard practice at NFL,
College and High School
football training camps and
are for the most part
poorly designed. Many of
you may remember the
media fiasco that Albert
Haynesworth’s difficulty to
pass the Washington
Redskins training camp
created and while I
certainly won’t argue that
Haynesworth came into
camp ready, the test he
was being asked to
perform (reportedly
multiple 300yd shuttles)
was so poorly designed
that his ability to pass it
had very little
correspondence to his
ability to play 4 quarters of
football.
While scouring Facebook
the other day, I ran across
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
Alex Parsons, USC/Oakland Raiders has taken himself
from a
77
practice squad player to a starter through training at Juggernaut
the video that featured a journalist attempting the Baltimore Ravens
conditioning test. The test shown was 6x150yd shuttles (Run to the 25yd line
and back, three times) with 70 seconds rest between each of the 6 reps.
Offensive lineman were required to perform each rep in under 35 seconds. The
journalist in the video does complete the test successfully, but after the 3 rd rep
is clearly swimming in a bath of lactic acid, yet football is a totally alactic sport,
so why do football coaches continue to insist upon conditioning their athletes
outside of the proper energy systems?
The flaws in this type of test are abundant, yet this test and others like it (mile,
300yd shuttles, 110 yd runs) seem to still be the rule, rather than the exception
in the NFL, college and high school football programs. It is well how NFL great,
running back Earl Campbell, would routinely be among the slowest to finish his
teams timed mile, yet he would dominate his competition during games.
Campbell is a perfect example of how having a well developed lactic capacity
does not help your ability (in fact it hinders it) to possess great speed,
explosiveness and alactic capacity. It is this same reason that Usain Bolt isn’t
also the World’s best 1500m runner and vice versa. To put it simply, being a
great distance runner makes you a worse sprinter; what do you want on your
team, sprinters or distance runners?
There has also been recent news of Felix Jones and two other players, failing
the Dallas Cowboys’ conditioning test of 2x10 sprints of 40-60yds depending
on position group. This is a far more rationally organized test that will do a
better job of measuring the players alactic capacity. The other players who
failed the test, Safety Brodney Pool and Receiver Andre Holmes, were ‘doing a
lot of distance running during the offseason’ according to Cowboys’ coach
Jason Garrett.
Distance running, in addition to being ineffective in developing the proper
energy systems needed for football, it is also much more stressful to the
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athlete’s joints. Stress fractures are a very common injury among distance
runners and that problem is only compounded by having 300+ pounders
performing distance work.
The Cowboy’s conditioning test is a good one, and simple to execute with large
groups. Other test that would be great to utilize would be The Prowler Sprint
Test or various sled sprint tests, utilizing heart rate monitors.
Ask anyone on the street who is better conditioned a marathon runner or a
professional strongman and 99 times out of 100, they will say the marathon
runner without hesitation. The question being asked though is incomplete, it
must be predicated on: better conditioned to do what? That is the question that
too many sport coaches are failing to ask when they begin having their athletes
run a set of gassers or suicides or send them off onto a multiple mile run.
While the marathon runner is certainly better prepared to run, swim or bike for
multiple miles, but the Strongman is better suited to produce repeated high
outputs with short rest periods. You must examine what it is your athletes need
to be ready for; long and slow or short and fast?
Those in charge of the training of football players, or any athlete, must examine
what energy systems are primarily responsible for their athlete’s success.
American football is a aerobic-alactic sport; from a time-motion standpoint it
features 10-18 series of 3-15 plays which last 3-10 seconds in duration in
which the athlete will usually cover 5-40 yds and encounter varying resistance
depending on position. Depending on the style of offense being run and length
of the play clock being used there will be 15-40 seconds between plays and
2-10 minutes between series. The understanding of this information is the
jumping off point to properly conditioning football players.
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At Juggernaut, our alactic capacity conditioning is organized in the following
manner:
MO NDAY
TUE SDAY
W ED NE SDAY
T HU R SDAY
FR I DAY
Alactic
Tempo Runs
Alactic
Tempo Runs
Alactic
Capacity
Drills-10 series
Capacity
Drills-14 series
Capacity
Drills-12 series
Primary Bench
Recovery
Accessory
Recovery
Primary Squat
Training
Modalities
Weights
Modalities
Training
Secondary
Abs
Secondary
Squat Training
Bench Training
Abs
Abs
Our alactic capacity work is broken into series or 4-8 plays per series with a
play being an explosive activity lasting 3-7 seconds in duration, in an effort to
mimic the exact energy systems of a football game. We use 5-7 different drills
each day to keep the athletes from getting stale and will do 2 series of each
drill. Drills used vary by position group and include SPP drills, particularly for
linemen. Rest between plays is 15-25 seconds depending on the time of year,
style of offense they play in (or against) and length of play clock used at their
level of play. Here is a look at some of our staple alactic capacity drills.
Here is the normal progression of drills that we utilize for each position group:
LI NE MEN
B IG SK I LL (TE , L B , FB ,
P RO S TY LE Q B )
SM A LL SKI LL ( RB , WR ,
D B , SP RE A D QB )
1. Positional Start
1. Positional Start
1. Positional Start
Sprints-15 yds
Sprints-25yds
Sprints-35yds
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LI NE MEN
B IG SK I LL (TE , L B , FB ,
P RO S TY LE Q B )
SM A LL SKI LL ( RB , WR ,
D B , SP RE A D QB )
2. Mirror/Dodge Drill or
2. Positional Start
2. Positional Start
15yd Shuttle
Sprints-25yds
Sprints-35 yds
3. Double Jumps Uphill
3. Mirror Drill (Defense) or
3. Mirror Drill (Defense) or
15yd Shuttle (Offense)
15yd Shuttle (Offense)
4. Prowler Push + Sprint
4. Triple Jump Uphill
4. Quadruple Jump Uphill
5. Prowler Explosions
5. Prowler Push + Sprint
5. Prowler Explosions
6. Grappler Punches
6. Prowler Explosions
6. Speed Skater Jumps
7. KB Squat Jumps
7. KB Squat Jumps
7. KB Squat Jumps
The athletes will perform 2 series of each number, for a total of 10-14 total
series, depending on the day. Through a 3 week alactic capacity cycle, we will
add one play per rep each week, so Week 1, on Monday, the athletes will do 10
series of 5 plays per series, Week 2, will be 10 series of 6 plays, Week 3, will be
10 series of 7 plays. Then we will drop back down to 5 plays but cut the rest
between plays by 5 seconds. Rest between series remains constant at 2.5
minutes and they are given a 5 minute halftime between the median sets.
Critically think about how you are conditioning yourself and your athletes.
Does it match the energy system demands of the sport?
Aerobic capacity is the quality the most needs to be developed for success in
most sports, or just for anyone looking to improve their health, recovery,
performance and physique. Aerobic capacity can be developed rather simply
through a variety of means. My favorite to use for myself and my athletes are
various Tempo Activity Circuits. Tempo runs are a staple of the training of elite
track and field athletes and were popularized by the late, great, Charlie Francis.
Tempo runs are moderate distance intervals done at 60-75% of maximum
speed interspersed by walking or various calisthenics. Tempo runs serve as a
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great aerobic capacity development tool, as well as helping speed recovery by
creating a flushing of the muscles with new blood and nutrients. ‘Tempos’
though do not just have to be confined to running, a variety of activities from
running, running drills, biking, swimming, running in water, jumping rope,
pushing the prowler, dragging the sled, medicine ball throwing, using the
Versaclimber or doing a variety of calisthenics, can all be utilized in a tempo
fashion to improve aerobic capacity and enhance recovery, while aiding in fat
burn, they just must be used within certain parameters to ensure that the
correct energy systems are being used.
C R E AT IN G YO U R OW N T E M P O AC T I V I TY CI RCU I TS
1. Pick an exercise from what I listed above and perform it at 60-75% intensity
for 10-40 seconds. If you are performing tempo runs, distances of 60-400yds is
suitable. It is critical to stay within this intensity range, as going above it will put
you into anaerobic development zone or cause you to enter a lactic state and
defeat the purpose of the drill. Going slower than this will not raise your heart
rate sufficiently and therefore won’t develop your aerobic abilities.
To determine what is 60-75% intensity, simply measure your 100% output in the
drill (i.e. maximum RPMs on the bike, maximum ground contacts of jump rope
in 1 minute, timed sprint for 30-50m) and multiply your result by .7 to find your
optimum output. The time intervals you use will be determined by your fitness
levels and the nature of the drill you are using.
If you have low fitness levels, you will want to stay on the lower end of this
range. Also if you are using a drill, like the Versaclimber, that is more
challenging to your muscular systems than say just running, you will want to
perform shorter intervals to avoid going lactic. Make sure to also consider when
picking an aerobic capacity development activity, that some of these are more
stressful to the joints than others, and if you are a lifter, particularly in a higher
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
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weight class, you will be well served to keep your work as low impact as
possible; both the bike and running in water will be good options for you.
2. Perform your drill for the prescribed time period or distance, interspersing it
with low intensity calisthenic and abdominal work. Normally I will push the
prowler for 20yds at a moderate pace, then perform 10 pushups, 10 blast strap
rows or 20-30 reps of medicine ball abdominals (alternating exercises after
each rep). Adding in these drills is a great way to improve your general work
capacity and is particularly useful with athlete’s who possesses low general
fitness, as adding 50 pushups and 100 abs throughout the course of a tempo
session, which can be done several times per week, will rapidly improve their
GPP.
3. Once you perform your tempo activity and calisthenics, have some active
rest (i.e. walking) to help your heart rate recover faster before starting the next
rep of the circuit. A good rule of thumb is to rest of half of the time that your
drill was, so if you did 30 seconds on the bike, then you will walk for 15
seconds after completing your calisthenics.
4. When progressing your tempo work, a good place to start is 2 Sets of 6
Reps of Whatever Time you Choose. The next week you would do 2 Sets of 8
Reps, then 2 Sets of 10 Reps. After 2 Sets of 10 Reps, you will drop back
down to 2x6 and will add some time/distance to your tempo activity. Once you
are doing 2 Sets of 10 Reps of 40 seconds at your given activity, just continue
to perform that on a weekly basis as you will just be at a point of maintenance
with your aerobic work.
5. Tempo work can and should be done multiple times per week. You could
perform tempo circuits after your upper body training sessions or on off days.
These workouts only take 20-30 minutes to complete and will provide numerous
benefits to your training.
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With all that being said, I understand that some people who are reading this
aren’t competitive athletes or coaches and just want to challenge themselves
physically and I certainly understand that the feeling of exhaustion that is
elicited by some of the drills listed above, give an odd feeling of satisfaction
and achievement when accomplished. Here are some suggestions on how to
really push your conditioning hard without taking away too much from your
strength work.
1. When you are in a time where you want to push your conditioning harder, you
need to reduce the intensity of your weights. Intensifying multiple training
means at once, just doesn’t work, something has got to give. A simple way to
take things back on your weights a little bit, is to just perform the minimum
prescribed reps during your accumulation and intensification weeks. Only go for
broke on your Realization week. Conditioning is a stimulus to the body just like
anything else, so increasing it will allow you to reduce the volume/intensity of
other work without a significant drop in those abilities.
2. Plan out this work. Too often people will mindlessly go about this type of
conditioning work and just rely on feel to gauge if they are improving. Plan your
work and work your plan. Your progression from week to week doesn’t need to
be complicated or fancy, from week to week you either need to go faster,
farther, heavier or with less rest than you did the week before. Don’t go faster,
farther, heavier or with less rest than before, pick at most 2 of those things to
do.
3. Pick your battles. Not only will going to complete exhaustion negatively
impact your strength levels, it will also have a negative impact on your health
and ironically enough, your conditioning. Vomiting, and the like, are warning
signs for your body that you need to stop what you are doing. So while you may
have some masochistic desire to leave yourself in the fetal position at the end
of your training sessions, don’t let that be more than a once a month activity.
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Muscle & Fitness, a world wide leader in the
fitness industry, featured Chad and his original
Juggernaut Method in 2011.
P EAKI N G F O R A POW ERLI FT I N G MEET
A proper peaking strategy for a competition is critical to maximizing your
performance. My competition lifts have always far exceeded my gym lifts and
this can be attributed to a well planned peak and ability to focus well during
competition. During the standard protocol of the Juggernaut Method, you won’t
perform any singles and this can be an issue for some lifters from a physical
and/or psychological standpoint. This is how I organized my peak training cycle
for my first powerlifting meet. During my Juggernaut Method cycle, the heaviest
weights I had used were 635x5 in the squat, 390x6 in the bench and 600x7 in
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the deadlift. At the meet I squatted 800, bench 463 and deadlifted 700. This
protocol began after I had taken a deload week, after the 3s Realization Phase
and was on a 3 day/week training split:
WEEK
1
2
DAY 1
DAY 2
DAY 3
1-Squat: Up to 675x3
(in wraps), this was my
1-Bench: Up to 395x3
(85% of Projected 1rm),
This 3rd day of the week
was an accessory day
first time ever wearing
paused. I wasn’t
and consisted mostly of
knee wraps. If you
aren’t going to be
performing my
Juggernaut Method work
moderate weight and
volume work for the
competing in knee
wraps, I would suggest
from a pause, if you are
pausing your work in the
hamstrings, quads,
shoulders, back and
taking 87.5% of your
Juggernaut Method, than
arms. This was at most
Projected 1rm from the
3s Wave for a set of 3.
you should move this
percentage up to 87.5%.
an hour long training
session.
2-Deadlift: 405 (60% of
Projected 1rm) x8 sets
2-DB Incline Bench: 2x10
3-Row Variation: 5 sets
of 1
of 15 reps
3-GHRs: 3x10
4-Weighted Abs
4-Light Shoulders and
Arms
1-Deadlift: Singles at
600, 635 and 655 (80,
1-Bench: UP to 410x2
(88% of P1rm), paused.
84, 88% of Projected
2-DB Incline Bench: 2x8
1rm). The deadlift is
extremely taxing to the
3-Row Variation (same as
previous week): 5 sets of
CNS and in my opinion
doesn’t need to be
12 reps
4-Light Shoulders and
trained near a true
Arms
maximum to improve.
2-Squat: 405 (60% of
Projected 1rm) x6 sets
of 1
3-GHR: 3x8
4-Weighted Abs
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WEEK
3
DAY 1
DAY 2
1-Squat: Up to 765x1
(in wraps). If you are
1-Bench: Up to 435x1,
this should be halfway
competing in wraps,
between your opener and
this should be about
halfway between your
2nd attempts.
2-DB Incline: 2x6
opener and 2nd
attempt. If you aren’t in
3-Row Variation (Same
as previous week): 5 sets
wraps, this should be
of 10
92.5% of your projected
1rm.
4-Light Shoulders and
Arms
DAY 3
2-Deadlift: 65% of P1rm
x4 sets of 1
3-GHR: 3x6
4-Weighted Abs
4
1-Squat: 405, 455,
495x1 (60, 65, 70% of
1-Bench: 275, 315,
365x1 (60, 65, 70%x1)
P1rm)
2-Row Variation: 3x10
2-GHR: 2x10, light
3-Weighted Abs
3-Light Shoulders and
Arms
5
(Week
This was a Tuesday, I
performed about 20
Off
of
minutes of very light
Meet)
work, consisting of
some DB Benching,
1-Deadlift: 365, 405, 455
x1 (60, 65, 70% of P1rm)
Competed on a Saturday
GHRs, and Chest
Supported Rows.
Weight selection during these weeks is critical. You are much better off slightly
reducing your weights and dominating each session, then going for broke here
and grinding through reps. You will be well served to do a set of 3 with a weight
and walk away from it telling yourself you could have done 5, rather than doing
a true 3 rep max. Training lifts should be competed calmly and smoothly, save
the adrenaline and fire for the platform when it matters. At this point, within only
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a few weeks before a meet, your ability to get stronger is very limited, you need
to focus on being healthy, confident and well rested/recovered.
If you are at lower strength levels, you do not need as long of a deload going
into the meet. Less accomplished lifters lack the ability to stress their bodies as
much and thus do not need as long to recover. Also a lower qualified lifter, most
likely has less muscle mass so they will become detrained faster than their
more experienced counterpart. If you feel this applies to you then I would
perform Session 1-Week 5 on the Thursday before the meet and just moved up
all the other sessions 2 days closer to the meet. To compress the time even
more, you could combine the squat and deadlift sessions in Week 4 into one
training session.
In addition, to preparing your body for competition through a well planned peak
and proper nutrition, you need to also prepare your mind. Visualizing successful
lift attempts will go along way towards being successful on meet day. Fill your
mind with positive mental imagery, take 10 minutes at the end each training
session or before you go to bed to visualize yourself successfully completing
each attempt. I have consistently added 7.5% to my competition lifts compared
to my training lifts in each meet and I think this can be attributed to training
submaximally in a relaxed state and cultivating a positive mental attitude.
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Chad with 375 pounds in
each hand in Las Vegas, NV.
T HE J U G G E RN AU T M ET H O D AN D ST RO N G MAN
The Juggernaut Method is a great training option for Strongman competitors.
Strongman places a great emphasis on maximal strength, explosive strength,
strength endurance and athleticism, all traits which the TJM will help you fully
develop. Programming for Strongman is a very challenging task for many
reasons such as; different athletes need to emphasize different aspects of their
training (some have adequate maximal strength but are slow, some need to
more event practice, some are well conditioned but relatively weak) and each
contest is different and will place different demands on athletes. With those
difficulties understood, I can’t write a program for every possible scenario of
athlete strength/weakness, events and contest but I can say with great
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confidence that an athlete who is maximally strong in the squat, deadlift and
overhead, explosive, athletic, well conditioned and technically proficient in the
Yoke, Farmers/Frame and Stones, will have a great shot to compete at
essentially any contest.
There are two methods by which I prefer to organize Strongman training
templates. The first is to have a separate event day, in which you do 2-4 events
only on that day. When I am referring to events here I mean moving events and
stones, while deadlift and Log/Axle/DB press are events, they can and should
be treated as normal training days. The second option is to include events into
your gym days, doing the events that compliment the main lift of the day. Both
options have their pros and cons; I think the 1st option is better suited for
someone with a relatively higher squat/deadlift that needs to be able to focus
more attention on their speed and event skills. Often times the way that your
week is structured is dependent on what access you have to Strongman
implements.
Chad walking with a 930 pound yoke on his back
IF YOU WA N T
TO BE A GR EAT
S TRO NG MA N,
T HER E CA N B E
NO W EAK A RE A S
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
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Here is an overview of how I would structure the week with a separate event
day:
DAY 1
DAY 2
DAY 3
DAY 4
DAY 5
DAY 6
DAY 7
Deadlift
Aerobic
Overhead
Aerobic
Event Day
Bench
Off
and Squat
Training
Capacity
Work
Training
Capacity
Training
Training
In this template, the deadlift and squat are trained on the same day. The
deadlift is a staple of Strongman contests and some variation of it is found at
nearly every show. The squat, while rarely contested, is still a foundational
movement to Strongman, having a huge influence on an athlete’s abilities in the
yoke, stones, carry and drag events, as well as overhead work. The deadlift will
be given top priority in the day and trained on The Juggernaut Method protocol
and the squat will be trained using lower volume with 5/3/1.
Overhead strength is a must to be a great Strongman! By the time this book is
released, the first athlete may have gone over 500 pounds in the Log Press and
there will be more to come. Maximal and repetition strength is necessary in the
overhead events, as contests will often feature one max overhead event and
another for reps. The event day will consist of training the stones and various
moving events (Yoke, farmers/frame, carrying events, dragging events, or
medleys, i.e. a combination of 2 or more events).
Moving events need to be trained in a well rounded fashion, brining up the
athlete’s strength, speed and endurance for each event. Weights in the moving
events, particularly the yoke and farmers, are getting heavier every year,
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athlete’s are getting faster and distances are getting longer. If you want to be a
great Strongman, there can be no weak areas. To become well rounded and
proficient in all events, I suggest choosing 3 events to focus on per wave and
rotating each week through training one for max weight, one for max speed and
one for max distance.
The bench is the outcast of the Strongman world, but in my opinion still serves
a purpose to develop pressing strength and will benefit your overhead abilities.
Since the bench isn’t an actual Strongman event, you should use the close-grip
or incline (or incline close-grip) as your foundation movement and perform only
the prescribed reps during the Accumulation and Intensification weeks, so as to
not take away from your energy for overhead training days.
The aerobic capacity days are critical to helping you improve recovery and
endurance and should follow the same protocols outlined in the Conditioning
section of this book.
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Let’s look at a 3 week wave of training using this template:
WEEK
1
D EADL IF T/
SQUAT
OV ER HE A D
EV E NT S
B E NC H
1-Deadlift: TJM
1-Log or Axle: Up 1-Atlas Stones: Up
1-Closegrip
%/Sets/Reps
2-Squat:
to Heavy Set of 5
from Rack
to Max Weight for
a Given Height,
Incline Press:
TJM %/Sets/
55/65/75%x5+
2-Log or Axle
i.e. Load as heavy
Reps
3-GHR, RDL,
Clean Once and
a stone as you can
2-Horizontal
Rev Hyper or
Press: TJM %/
to a 48-54”
Row: 3-5x12-15
Good Morning:
Sets/Reps
platform
3-Accessory
3-5x12-15
3-Pullups or
2-Yoke: Perform
Work for
4-Weighted
Chinups:
10 second long
Shoulders and
Abs
5x12-15 reps
runs, going as far
Arms
4-Accessory
as you can with a
5-Unweighted
Work for
Shoulders and
given weight. Add
weight each set,
Abs
Arms
until you fail to go
5-Unweighted
at least 50’ in the
Abs
set time.
3-Farmers Walk:
Using a moderate
weight walk as far
as possible
without dropping
the weight at all.
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WEEK
2
D EADL IF T/
SQUAT
OV ER HE A D
EV E NT S
B E NC H
1-Deadlift: TJM
1-Log or Axle: Up 1-Yoke: Work up
1-Closegrip
%/Sets/Reps
2-Squat:
to Heavy Set of 3
from Rack
to as heavy as
weight as you can
Incline Press:
TJM %/Sets/
60/70/80%x3+
2-Log or Axle
successfully
Reps
3-GHR, RDL,
Clean Once and
perform a 30-50’
2-Horizontal
Rev Hyper or
Press: TJM %/
walk with
Row: 3-5x10-12
Good Morning:
Sets/Reps
2-Farmers:
3-Accessory
3-5x10-12
3-Pullups or
Perform 10 second Work for
4-Weighted
Chinups:
long runs, going
Shoulders and
Abs
5x10-12 reps
as far as you can
Arms
4-Accessory
with a given
5-Unweighted
Work for
Shoulders and
weight. Add
weight each set,
Abs
Arms
until you fail to go
5-Unweighted
at least 50’ in the
Abs
set time.
3-Stones: Using a
moderate weight
do stone over bar
for as many reps
as possible in 1
minute. Perform
2-3 sets
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WEEK
3
D EADL IF T/
SQUAT
OV ER HE A D
EV E NT S
B E NC H
1-Deadlift: TJM
1-Log or Axle: Up 1-Farmers: Work
1-Closegrip
%/Sets/Reps
2-Squat:
to Heavy Set of 1
from Rack
up to as heavy as
weight as you can
Incline Press:
TJM %/Sets/
65%x5, 75%x3,
2-Log or Axle
hold onto for a
Reps
85%x1+
Clean Once and
30-50’ walk with
2-Horizontal
3-GHR, RDL,
Press: TJM %/
2-Stones: Using a
Row: 3-5x8-10
Rev Hyper or
Sets/Reps
moderate weight,
3-Accessory
Good Morning:
3-Pullups or
perform multiple
Work for
3-5x8-10
Chinups: 5x8-10
sets of 2-3 reps as
Shoulders and
4-Weighted
reps
fast as possible. 5
Arms
Abs
4-Accessory
to 8 sets should
5-Unweighted
Work for
Shoulders and
be done.
3-Yoke: Using a
Abs
Arms
moderate weight
5-Unweighted
go as far as
Abs
possible without
dropping the Yoke
at all.
This type of plan will develop a well rounded and well conditioned athlete and is
a good option for those who have limited access to implements.
The other way to structure your Strongman training week is to pair events that
share similar qualities to gym lifts and do them in the same training session. In
this version, the events will serve as your supplementary work. Upper body
training days will remain relatively unchanged, with the exception of if you have
DB Clean and Press or a DB Medley as an event. When looking to pair events
and lifts together, I suggest the following...Squat with Yoke and/or Tire Flip,
Deadlift with Farmers and/or Stones. Our event training will follow a similar
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rotation to the template above, with each week focusing on a different quality,
either weight, speed or endurance.
WEEK
1
SQUAT
1-Squat: TJM %/
OV ER HE A D
DE A DLI FT
1-Log or Axle: Up 1-Deadlift: TJM
B E NC H
1-Closegrip
Sets/Reps
to heavy set of 5
2-Yoke: As heavy from rack
%/Sets/Reps
2-Farmers: As
Incline Bench:
TJM %/Sets/
as possible for
2-Log or
heavy as possible
Reps
2-3 sets of 30’
Axle:TJM %/
for 2-3 sets of 30’
2-DB Clean and
3-Tire Flip: As
Sets/Reps
3-Stones: Load
Press: As many
heavy as
3-Chinups/
as heavy a stone
reps as possible
possible for 2-3
Pullups: 5 sets of
as possible to a
with in 1 minute
sets of 2-5 flips
12-15 reps
given platform
3-Horizontal
4-Weighted Abs
4-Accessory
(this could be
Rowing: 5 sets
work for
done prior to your
of 12-15 reps
Shoulders and
Arms
deadlift training)
4-Weighted Abs
4-Accessory
Work for
5-Unweighted
Shoulders and
Abs
Arms
5-Unweighted
Abs
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WEEK
2
SQUAT
OV ER HE A D
DE A DLI FT
B E NC H
1-Squat: TJM %/
1-Log or Axle: Up 1-Deadlift: TJM
1-Closegrip
Sets/Reps
2-Yoke: As far as
to heavy set of 3
from rack
%/Sets/Reps
2-Farmers: As far
Incline Bench:
TJM %/Sets/
possible in 10
2-Log or
as possible in 10
Reps
seconds, keep
Axle:TJM %/
seconds, keep
2-DB Clean and
adding weight
Sets/Reps
adding weight
Press: As many
until you fail to
3-Chinups/
until you fail to go
reps as possible
go at least 50’
Pullups: 5 sets of
at least 50’
in 1 minute
3-Tire Flip: A
10-12 reps
3-Stones: Load a
3-Horizontal
moderate weight
4-Accessory
moderate weight
Rowing: 5 sets
tire for 6-10 sets
work for
stone as fast as
of 10-12 reps
of 2 flips, as fast
as possible
Shoulders and
Arms
possible for 6-10
sets of 2-3 reps.
4-Accessory
Work for
4-Weighted Abs
5-Unweighted
4-Weighted Abs
Shoulders and
Abs
Arms
5-Unweighted
Abs
3
1-Squat: TJM %/
1-Log or Axle: Up 1-Deadlift: TJM
1-Closegrip
Sets/Reps
2-Yoke: As far as
to heavy set of 1
from rack
%/Sets/Reps
2-Farmers: As far
Incline Bench:
TJM %/Sets/
possible with a
2-Log or
as possible with a
Reps
moderate weight
Axle:TJM %/
moderate weight
2-DB Clean and
with no drops.
Sets/Reps
with no drops.
Press: As many
3-Tire Flip: A
3-Chinups/
3-Stones: Load a
reps as possible
moderate weight
Pullups: 5 sets of
moderate weight
in 1 minute.
tire for as many
8-10 reps
stone as many
3-Horizontal
flips as possible
4-Accessory
times as possible
Rowing: 5 sets
in 60-90
work for
in 60-90 seconds.
of 8-10 reps
seconds
4-Weighted Abs
Shoulders and
Arms
4-Weighted Abs
4-Accessory
Work for
5-Unweighted
Shoulders and
Abs
Arms
5-Unweighted
Abs
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This template will allow the athlete to place more emphasis on brining up both
their squat and deadlift, as well as giving them frequent exposure to events.
Obviously, you need to have unlimited access to event implements for this
template to work. Continue to perform aerobic capacity development work on 2
or your 3 off days.
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A LT E R N AT I V E E X E R C I SES TO THE BIG 4
People are always asking what exercises they can do with the Juggernaut
Method, instead of the standard, Squat, Bench, Deadlift and Military Press.
Here are my approved variations for each movement (I’m sure there a plenty
more I just didn’t think of):
SQ UAT
Front Squat, Box Squat, Safety Bar Squat, Cambered Bar Squat, Zercher Squat
BENCH
Closegrip Bench, Floor Press, 2 Board Press, Incline Bench, Widegrip Bench
(be careful about shoulder health), Chain Bench, Reverse Band Bench
D E A D L IF T
All squatting variations listed above, Deficit Deadlifts from 2-6” deficit, Rack
Pulls, Snatch Grip Deadlifts, Sumo Deadlifts (if you pull conventional normally),
Conventional Deadlifts (if you pull sumo normally).
M IL ITA RY P R E S S
All bench variations listed above, Push Press, Bentover Rows, Chinups/Pullups
You will be fine substituting any on these lifts, just make sure that you stick with
them for at least 2 waves.
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J U G G E RN AU T N U T RITI O N
Maximum strength, speed, conditioning and performance, as well as a great
physique, all require high quality fuel. If your nutrition isn’t on point, your
training and results will suffer. Nutrition has become far more confusing than it
should be. Of course, the dietary protocols that must be adhered to by a
competitive bodybuilder or figure athlete are complex, but for the majority of
strength athletes who are simply looking to be as big, strong, fast and lean as
possible; fairly simple guidelines can be adhered to and help you reach your
goals.
There are 3 basic goals that most people fall under, Fat/Weight Loss, Weight
Maintenance/Redistribution and Weight/Mass Gain. Obviously this is a
simplification and things such as body type and carb tolerance must be taken
into account but the following guidelines will serve most people well:
FAT /W E IGH T L O S S
Calories per pound of bodyweight:
-Men: 14-16 Calories
-Women: 11-13 Calories
-Macronutrient Breakdown:
Protein: 30%, Fats: 70%
Adhere to a very low or no carb protocol for the majority of your eating. Try to
limit carb intake to 1 meal (in the evening) every 7-10 days.
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When looking at the calorie ranges listed, the leaner you are the higher on the
calorie range you will be because your basal metabolic rate is higher due to a
higher percentage of lean mass you possess.
W E IG H T M A I N T E N A N C E / R E D I S T R I B U TI O N
Calories per pound of bodyweight:
-Men: 16-18 Calories
-Women: 13-15 Calories
-Macronutrient Breakdown:
Training Days: Protein: 25%, Fats: 50%, Carbs: 25%-All carb intake
should be kept to during training and/or after 6pm each day.
Non-Training Days: Protein: 30%, Fats: 70%
Carbohydrate timing is critical to manipulating important hormones like insulin
to burn fat and build muscle.
W E IG H T /M A S S G A I N
Calories per pound of bodyweight
-Men: 18-20 Calories
-Women: 15-17 Calories
-Macronutrient Breakdown:
Training Day: Protein: 30%, Fats: 40%, Carbs: 30%-All carb intake
should be kept to during training and/or after 6pm each day.
Non-Training Days: Protein: Protein 30%, Fats: 50%, Carbs: 20%.
When looking to gain weight/mass, the quality of your carb intake will have a
big influence on the quality of weight you gain.
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Certainly this is a very simplified look at nutrition for these different physique
goals, but will be a good start for many towards reaching their goals. If you can
base your diet around lean proteins, complex carbs, good dietary fats and
green stuff (aka. veggies) you will be off to a good start to getting strong,
jacked and fueling high level performances.
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T HE J U G G E RN AU T CO O K BO O K
Here is a sample of some of my favorite meals. These can be used within
virtually any physique goal, simply by manipulating qualities or timing. The
quantities listed are what I am usually eating so keep in mind that I weigh
normally between 315 and 330 pounds, so adjust accordingly.
IN T E R MIT T EN T FA S T I N G B R E A K FA S T
-16oz Green Tea (hot)
-2 TBSP Coconut Oil
Macro Breakdown: 30g of Fat
SP IN AC H , TU R K E Y, BAC O N A N D C H E ESE SCRAMBLE
-6 Eggs
-3 Strips of Bacon
-4 Turkey Meatballs
-2 Handfuls of raw Baby Spinach
-1 Handful of lite shredded cheese
Marco Breakdown: 60g Protein, 75g Fat
P E A N U T B U T T E R A N D BA N A N A PA N CAK ES
-2 Cups of Trader Joe’s Whole Grain Pancake Mix, 2 Eggs, 1 Cup of Milk, 1
TBSP Olive Oil
-1 Large Banana
-2 TBSP Natural Peanut Butter
Macro Breakdown: 30g Protein, 200g Carbs, 30g Fats
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L OA D E D OAT M E A L
-2 Packets of Instant Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal
-2 Spoonfuls of Natural Peanut Butter
-1 Banana
-1 Handful of Blueberries
Macro Breakdown: 30g Protein, 150g Carbs, 30g Fats
B R E A K FA ST S A N DW I C H E S
-4 Slices of Ezekiel Bread
-4 Fried Eggs
-2 Slices of Cheese
-6 Strips of Bacon
Macro Breakdown: 70g Protein, 60g Carbs
L OW CA R B DAY T I M E S H A K E
-4 Scoops of Juggernaut Fat Loss Formula
-2 TBSP Natural Peanut Butter
-2 TBSP Olive Oil
Macro Breakdown: 100g Protein, 45g Fats
L OW CA R B B E D T I M E S H A K E
-4 Scoops of Juggernaut Anytime Shake
-2 TBSP Natural Peanut Butter
-2 TBSP Olive Oil
Macro Breakdown: 100g Protein, 45g Fats
H IG H CA R B P E R I / P O S T T R A I N I N G S HAK E
-2 Scoops of Juggernaut Muscle Growth Formula
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-16oz Chocolate Milk
-1 Banana
Macro Breakdown: 60g Protein, 125g Carbs
H IG H CA R B B E D T I M E ( E V E N I N G B E F O RE TRAI NI NG ) SH AK E
-2 Scoops of Juggernaut Muscle Growth Formula
-16oz Almond Milk
-1 Banana
-2 Scoops of Frozen Greek Yogurt
Macro Breakdown: 75g Protein, 150g Carbs
J U G G E R N AU T D E L U X E W E I G H T G A I N SH AK E
-3 Scoops of Juggernaut Muscle Growth Formula
-16oz Chocolate Milk
-1 Banana
-2 Scoops of Ice Cream
-2 TBSP Natural Peanut Butter
-2 TBSP Olive Oil
Macro Breakdown: 120g Protein, 225g Carbs, 45g Fats
ST R O N G MA N TAC O S A L A D
-16oz Grass fed Beef (seasoned with 1/2 taco seasoning packet)
-4oz Guacamole
-1 Chopped Bell Pepper
-2 TBSP Olive Oil
-Large Serving of Spinach
Macro Breakdown: 90g Protein, 110g Fats
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P OW E R B U RG E R S
-16oz Grass fed Beef, seasoned with salt, pepper and garlic powder
-4oz Guacamole
-2 Fried Eggs
-2 slices Cheese
-Large Serving of Green Beans, drizzled with Olive Oil
Macro Breakdown: 90g Protein, 110g Fat
G R IL L E D C H I C K E N , S W E E T P OTATO E S AND BLACK BEANS
-12oz Grilled Chicken (seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic powder and chili
powder)
-1/2 bag of Trader Joe’s Sweet Potato Fries
-1/2 can of Black Beans
Macro Breakdown: 75g Protein, 100g Carbs
SA L M O N SA L A D
-12 oz Grilled Salmon (seasoned with salt, pepper and chili powder or BBQ
sauce)
-1 Chopped Bell Pepper
-2 TBSP Olive Oil
-Large Serving of Spinach
Macro Breakdown: 90g Protein, 110g Fat
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I N T ERV I EW W ITH
N FL LI N EMAN
ALEX PARSO N S
Alex Parsons, a friend and
product of Juggernaut
Training Systems is a
testament to the value of
consistent, hard work.
Alex discusses his
progression from High
School All-American, to
Rose Bowl Champion as a
USC Trojan, to NFL
starter—and what is
necessary to be
successful at each level of
play. Click below to listen
to Juggernaut’s interview
with Alex.
I N T ERV I EW WI TH N FL
LI N EMA N A LEX PA R SO N S
Alex Parsons, USC/Oakland Raiders has taken himself from a
practice squad player to a starter through training at Juggernaut
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JUG G E R N AU T
PROW L E R
M A NUA L
S I X WAYS TO B ETTER U SE TH E P R OWLER
by
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
CHAD WESLEY SMITH
108
JUG G E R N AU T
PROW L E R
M A NUA L
S I X WAYS TO B ETTER U SE TH E P R OWLER
by
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
CHAD WESLEY SMITH
109
T HE P R OW L E R IS E V ERY W H ERE
Over the last several years the Prowler and other similar sleds have become the
en vogue training tool. You can find them everywhere from hardcore powerlifting
gyms, to bootcamp classes, to NFL weightrooms, to the set of The Biggest
Loser. It is a great tool that can be utilized to develop speed, strength, power
and endurance, as well as enhance recovery and rehabilitate injuries. For all the
great potential benefits of the using the Prowler, it is far too often used to
induce the notorious ‘Prowler Flu’ which for the uninitiated is vomiting induced
by highly lactic efforts performed with the Prowler.
Lactic based training has a very small or nonexistent role in the training needs
of most athletes. Powerlifting, Olympic lifting, football, basketball, lacrosse,
soccer, volleyball and the majority of track & field events have zero lactic
component to them; yet coaches for these sports continue to insist upon
imposing severe lactic loads on their athletes. It is very simple for people to
associate good work with hard work, but the two are far from the same.
Leaving yourself or your athletes in a heap, vomiting and barely able to function
may seem like you are really working hard and building ‘mental toughness’ but
you are actually just destroying their power potential and impeding their
recovery. Vomiting is a defense mechanism for your body, it happens because
your body is telling you that something is wrong and you need to stop what you
are doing.
If beating yourself into a vomiting pile of slow twitch muscle fibers isn’t the best
way to use the Prowler, then what is? Let’s take a look at some of Juggernaut’s
favorite Prowler protocols…
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C L ICK H E R E TO V I E W T H I S V I D EO D I SCU SSI NG SPECI AL PROWLER EXERCI SES
AER OBIC CA PAC ITY DEV ELO PMEN T AN D REC OV ERY
E NH AN C E M E N T
Legendary sprint coach, Charlie Francis, long advocated the value of tempo
runs. Tempo runs are 60-75% intensity running drills interspersed by
bodyweight calisthenics and abdominals. Tempo runs serve to improve the
athlete’s aerobic capacity and serve as a flushing mechanism to enhance
recovery between intensive training sessions. Tempo runs are great and serve
an integral part in many athlete’s training at Juggernaut but they may not be
appropriate for larger athletes (or competitive lifters/strongmen), as they will
impose too much stress on the joints. Tempo runs also may be impractical to
perform for those living in cold climates during certain times of the year. Tempo
work though doesn’t have to be restricted to purely running, pool work,
calisthenics, biking and Prowler pushing are all suitable options for tempo work.
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Set up your Tempo Prowler Workout by loading the Prowler with 50 pounds (or
less depending on your strength levels) and push it at 60-75% of your maximum
speed for 30-50yds. Once you finish your push, you will either do 10 pushups
or 20-30 reps of bodyweight abs (alternate between the two after every rep).
Then you will perform 20-30 seconds of active rest (ie. walking) before
beginning your next rep. Start by performing 2 sets of 6 reps and add 2 reps
per set each week, until you are doing 2 sets of 10 reps. The workout will
breakdown like this...
P U S H F O R 5 0 Y D S , D O 10 PU SH U PS, WALK FO R 20 SECO ND S.
P U S H F O R 5 0 Y D S, D O 20 ABS, WALK FO R 20 SECO ND S
P U S H F O R 5 0 Y D S , D O 10 PU SH U PS, WALK FO R 20 SECO ND S.
P U S H F O R 5 0 Y D S , D O 20 ABS, WALK FO R 20 SECO ND S.
P U S H F O R 5 0 Y D S , D O 10 PU SH U PS, WALK FO R 20 SECO ND S.
P U S H F O R 5 0 Y D S , D O 20 ABS, WALK FO R 20 SECO ND S.
R E S T F O R 3 - 5 M INU TES BEFO RE BEG I NNI NG NEXT SET
Once you are doing 2
sets of 10 reps, you can
cut your rest periods
down, increase the
distance of your pushes
or add weight to the
sled. If you choose to
increase distance or
add weight, be gradual
in your increases.
2008 Olympic Gold Medalist and 2012 Silver Medalist in the
400m, Christine Ohuruogu, uses the Prowler extensively
during her training time at Juggernaut each spring.
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R EH AB
The Prowler can serve a critical role in the rehab of knee injuries including ACL
and MCL tears. Often in knee injuries like ACL/MCL tears activation of the
quadriceps are lost and there must be special attention paid to regaining this
activation and along with it strength. While there are still some PTs who will
employ leg extensions (Cringe!) as a method to regain quad strength after knee
surgery, the Prowler will do an equal job of regaining strength, while not
exposing the knee to shearing forces. Marching drills with the Prowler also
allow the patient to keep the quads under tension for a long time which will
recondition the muscle and improve strength endurance, while restoring work
capacity.
C L I C K H E R E TO V I E W T H I S V I DEO DISCUSSING HOW TO USE THE PROWLER TO
R EH ABI LI TATE I NJU RI ES
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P R OW L E R S H OV E S /E XPLO SI O N S
Both of these drills will help you develop total body explosive power, improve
coordination and they are fun. These drills are best used to develop either
Alactic Power or Alactic Capacity and can both serve as Special Physical
Preparedness exercises for Wrestlers, Football Players (particularly Linemen,
Tight Ends, Fullbacks and Linebackers), MMA fighters, BJJ practitioners, and
Rugby Players. When developing Alactic Power and Capacity it is critical to
keep your work intervals to under 6 seconds. When developing power,
complete rest is necessary, so a minimum of 90 seconds should be taken
between sets. Capacity rest intervals will be determined by the sport being
trained for but a good starting place is 30 seconds. The load utilized in these
drills will vary depending on the athlete’s abilities and the surface you are on, so
just keep in mind that you are trying to develop explosiveness, so use a weight
you can move powerfully.
A L AC T IC P OW E R C Y C L E
D RIL L
WE EK 1
WEEK 2
WEEK 3
Prowler Explosions
10 sets of 2
8 sets of 2
6 sets of 2 pushes
pushes with 90
pushes with 90
with 90 sec rest
sec rest
sec rest
In this protocol you will increase the weight used each week. When doing these
pushes you will walk from push to push, also between sets you want to stay
walking to improve recovery.
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A L AC T IC CA PAC I T Y C Y C L E
DR IL L
WE E K 1
WEE K 2
WEEK 3
Prowler Explosions 2 series of 4 sets
2 series of 5 sets
2 series of 6 sets
of 3 pushes with
of 3 pushes with
of 3 pushes with
30 sec rest b/t
30 sec rest b/t sets
30 sec rest b/t
sets and 2.5
and 2.5 minutes
sets and 2.5
minutes b/t series
b/t series
minutes b/t series
In this protocol the same weight is used each week. You want to be quick to
get back onto the Prowler between pushes and stay walking between sets and
series to improve recovery. As you progress through multiple Capacity cycles
you will follow this same Series/Set/Rep scheme and just reduce the rest
between sets by 5 seconds.
D E VE L O PIN G S IN G L E LEG ST REN G T H
Single leg strength is critical for improving speed, change of direction abilities
and maintaining health/stability in the knees. Lunges, split squat variations and
step ups are all great options, but heavy Prowler marches should definitely be
added to your exercise index.
Heavy Prowler marches can be programmed in the same way as you would
Step Ups, Lunges or Split Squats, just treating each step as a rep. Make sure
when performing these that you achieve full extension through your back leg on
every rep.
Heavy Prowler marches also have an important role in the training of young
athletes. Pushing the Prowler is a virtually technique less exercise, meaning that
athletes who lack mobility, coordination and the postural strength necessary to
squat/deadlift, can perform it with little risk of injury. Axial loading of the spine
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C L I C K H E R E TO V I E W T H I S V I D E O D I SCUSSING HOW TO USE THE PROWLER FOR SINGLE LEG
S T RENG TH D EVELO PMENT
should be avoided with young athletes, but they still need to improve their
strength, so Heavy Prowler marches and pulls are your ticket.
Heavy Prowler marches are also a great special strength exercise for sprinters
or anyone else looking to improve sprinting acceleration. When performing
heavy marches for this purpose, it is critical to maintain a negative shin angle,
dorsiflex the up foot and achieve full extension through the support leg.
Prowler marching will also build unilateral stability but in a much less
demanding way than lunge/split squat/step up variations. The knee isn’t the
only injury that the Prowler can help rehab either, the ankle can greatly benefit
from specific types of marches too. When looking to rehab the ankle, small
steps must be taken while focusing on using the ankle as the sole extensor of
the body. These small ‘toe walks’ will build up strength in the surrounding
musculature and improve stiffness of the Achilles.
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ALAC TIC CA PAC ITY T RAI N I N G
Alactic capacity is the most overlooked but most necessary energy system
quality that needs to be trained for sporting success. Alactic capacity is the
ability to repeat high level efforts (lactic power) with incomplete rest periods.
Sure it is great if you have an athlete who runs a 4.5 40 but if by the 2 nd half he
is playing like a 5.0, then what good is he? Improving that athlete’s alactic
capacity will allow him to keep running in the 4.5-4.6 range longer throughout a
game. To develop alactic capacity specific to a certain sport, you will need to
do a time motion analysis (study of the work to rest intervals in a sport and
what is done during both of those times) and adhere to those same parameters.
In football for example, athletes cover 5-35+ yards (depending on position)
during a 3-8 second period filled with combative elements and change of
direction and interspersed by 15-45 seconds depending on style of offense
employed and the length of the playclock.
The combative elements are particularly well trained by using the Prowler, but it
is suitable for athletes who don’t face a combative element or resistance
because it will simply increase the difficulty of the exercise and oxygen debt.
Programming of alactic capacity drills for general fitness purposes are simple,
perform a 3-6 second long push at maximum speed with a given weight (heavy
or light can be suitable) and then rest for 1 minute. Perform 2 sets of 10 reps
like this. The next week
reduce the rest periods to
50 seconds, 40 seconds
the next and 30 seconds
after that. Alactic capacity
week of this fashion will
have a tremendous fat
burning effect without
negatively affecting your
JUGGERNAUT METHOD 2.0
Notice the shin angle of all of these sprinters. Focus on achieving this same
angle during Prowler marches when trying to develop special strength
to
117
improve acceleration.
recovery or alactic power capacity.
L AC T I C CA PAC ITY T RAI N I N G
While I think that the Prowler is too often used for lactic capacity training, there
are athletes who need to improve their lactic capacity like MMA fighter, BJJ
practitioners, wrestlers and hockey players; and there are some people who just
have an odd fascination with making themselves feel like crap from their
training. While it is very simple to put yourself into a lactic state while pushing
the Prowler, you need to go about it systematically so you can manipulate your
workload and gauge your progress. A lactic state can be achieved by either
long duration pushes (>30 seconds) at a high exertion level, or short intense
pushes with rest periods that are too short to effectively flush the lactate out of
your muscles. Let’s look at how to organize both options…
L O N G D U R AT I O N L AC T I C CA PAC I T Y TRAI NI NG
Push as far as possible in 30 seconds (this will require a long distance to push
continuously, if that isn’t available take the time up to 45 seconds so you can
alternate between high and low handles or turn the Prowler) and rest for 8-10
minutes between sets. Repeat for 3 rounds. Rest periods need to be sufficient
so that you can replicate nearly the same distance each round. The next week
you can either increase the weight used, push for 10 more seconds or just try
and beat your distance.
SH O RT D U R AT I O N L AC T I C CA PAC I T Y TRAI NI NG
Push as fast as possible on the low handles for a distance that takes 6 seconds
to cover with a moderate weight. Rest for 20 seconds and repeat for 6 rounds.
The next week do 8 rounds and the next week do 10 rounds. Then start over at
6 rounds with more weight.
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Thank you for supporting Juggernaut
and using The Juggernaut Method.
Keep checking JTSstrength.com for
more great training information.
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